Closer
by I'll Go the Distance
Summary: Naruto had always been a good police with the rest of his team at Shageki Prison, so why was he finding it so difficult to get over this raven that had claimed himself guilty to protect his older brother, and even tortured? He saw it as his obligation to offer the boy a place to stay once he was out of judgement and with nothing left. He wanted to understand. Roommates, NaruSasu AU
1. Secrets

A/N: Yo, everyone!... So, first NaruSasu fanfic – First fanfic ever, for that matter, which put me a little nervous about uploading, but no way to know without trying, right? I got this idea by watching come criminal series and simply by re-watching and re-reading Naruto Shippuden and getting that burning feeling in your stomach when finding out that Itachi had been sacrificing his life to protect Sasuke and Sasuke getting hurt once he finds out, Naruto being the one who understands Sasuke's feelings and the one to make him feel loved again. So, based on that and with a lot of help from the whole Konoha gang to bring some good humor to the story, I created this AU plot and decided to go forward with it.

Sasuke is 21 years old and 8 in flashbacks, Naruto is 23.

I'll be using Japanese words such as _sensei_ (teacher/master), _senpai_ (someone superior to you; someone you admire/respect), and the suffixes '_kun_' and '_chan_'.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto—'cause if I did, Sasuke would have confessed his undying love for Naruto a long, long time ago. *shakes head in disapproval* Also, a big shout-out to Fiona (mitzukages/tumblr) for letting me use her edit as this fanfic's cover!

So here's the first chapter, and I hope you enjoy it. Please leave reviews; I accept constructive critics, and opinions/suggestions are very welcome.

* * *

Small, excited and yet insecure dark eyes of an eight year old Uchiha quickly travelled over a table full of delicious food, colourful desserts that he hasn't tasted in a while, his favourite juice and a bottle of a dark whine—which the little raven knew was an expensive one that deserved all the 'respect', for what he's heard in all kind of boring reunions from his room—and his older brother standing next to it with a soft smile on his face. Sasuke Uchiha allowed a grin to form on his face, noticing how Itachi Uchiha's—his older brother—own expression had turned into one of amusement as he lifted an eyebrow, taking in the little one's sparkling eyes.

"Have a seat, Sasuke, or the food's going to get cold," Itachi said as he took his usual seat.

Sasuke didn't need to be told twice and climbed to the chair that was placed in front of his older brother's one. "Big brother, big brother! Did you really cook _all_ of this?" He finally asked, his huge dark eyes waiting until Itachi was done placing a little bit of food from every different plate on the small table – no matter the circumstances, an Uchiha was to keep their manners – on his own plate. Itachi chuckled softly, proceeding to serve his younger brother.

"Yes, Sasuke, I cooked all of this. I _did_ promise you a nice dinner, now didn't I?" He said, studying the younger Uchiha's expression before moving on, his soft smile still present on his features as he sat back on his chair, Sasuke's plate now full "It has been rather difficult to have such a nice dinner since _it_ happened, so this is really nice, don't you think, Sasuke?"

Sasuke seemed a little hesitant at first, his small hand wrapping around the silver fork next to his plate. He then looked up, his dark bangs uncovering his eyes, and slightly nodded at his older brother, the same small smile from before returning to his young face.

The two dark haired boys clapped their hands together and said their thank you's before starting the meal, a comfortable silence settling between them as they enjoyed the delicious food Itachi knew how to do so perfectly well—but that was to expect. He was Itachi Uchiha, after all. Sasuke mentally noted down to start learning how to cook as soon as possible.

Once they were done eating, Sasuke sighed happily and leaned back on his chair—only to get a warning look from Itachi which made him sit straight up again, the younger boy offering him a sheepish grin—and after some minutes, Itachi was making the dishes and passing them to Sasuke, who had the duty of drying them off and placing them in the kitchen counter, since he still couldn't reach a big part of the drawers and cupboard—he wasn't small, he could totally do it!... If Itachi allowed him to, instead of going with the 'we don't need more broken dishes or an injured Sasuke' argument—and before the younger boy, who had been talking nonstop about his day at school to his older brother knew it, it was time for Itachi to go to work. The elder Uchiha worked at an office a little away from town to some company that wasn't too famous—that's what Sasuke had been told, anyway—though he'd only gotten the work a few weeks ago in order to be able to earn money instead of having to finish university, because it meant having to put Sasuke in an orphanage until he finished it.

Small dark eyes looked at the now empty table and back at Itachi, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion. This didn't go unnoticed by Itachi, who blinked a couple times at Sasuke.

"What is it, Sasuke?"

"I… " He paused. "Big brother?"

"Hn?"

"How did you get… money for all that good food? I know it was expensive, and… you only got to work some time ago, so I don't get it. How come you could make a pretty dinner if you're boss hasn't even paid you ye—"

He was cut off when he felt fingers and a warm palm messing his dark hair a little. Sasuke pouted annoyingly at his older brother, who knew this was something that annoyed the kid to no end, but when he looked up and saw his expression, he couldn't help but get even more confused. Itachi stared back at him with an almost guilty expression, his dark bangs covering his eyes, and his hand stopped moving to simply rest on Sasuke's head and slightly pet it. Some minutes passed.

Was that a… tear?

And then, two fingers poked the lost little boy's forehead "You don't need to worry about the money, Sasuke, I have got that under control. I am pretty sure we both know what you are _truly_ worried about, am I correct?" Itachi carefully said, too many emotions mixed in those dark eyes.

Sasuke slightly parted his lips to argue, but closed them again when he saw the look on his older brother's face. Looking down at his own feet and feeling, again, completely defeated by Itachi's weird capability of knowing exactly what he was truly thinking, he nodded, confirming the taller raven's thoughts.

The older Uchiha got on his knees so he was at the same level as his brother and pulled him into a hug, allowing the smaller body to cling to him and pull on his sleeves.

"Do you trust me?"

He received a small nod against his shoulder as a response.

"Then, please, _please, _Sasuke, believe your older brother when he says he is not going to break our promise—especially not because of money, I will _not_ allow us to ever fall apart because of money, no matter what it takes, we will always have it. No matter what happens, we will always be together," He closed his eyes, petting his little brother's back. "_Always._"

Sasuke nodded again, a small, embarrassed sob coming out from his lips, followed by a silent '_thank you_'.

* * *

Suddenly opening his eyes when the front door was closed, Sasuke Uchiha hopefully gazed up at the clock standing on the bedside table on the right side of his double bed that announced 2am in a beeping red. He sat upright in a quick movement, throwing the blankets back. The raven took his time to glare at his room's closed door and to listen very carefully at the very slightest sound downstairs, nodding a bit to himself when coming to the conclusion that his brother had, indeed, left for work.

Letting out a deep breath he didn't know he was holding, Sasuke closed his eyes in relief and pondered one last time over what he was about to do in the next minutes—it wasn't like the younger Uchiha wasn't sure about wanting to find out about every secret that was kept in the Forbidden Room, as he liked to call it, since Itachi had never, _ever_ allowed his little brother to step inside it one single time in his life and always kept it locked from him, but he knew that whatever was inside that so secret room, was _precious_ information – perhaps the answer to everything that has bothered Sasuke for the last thirteen years. How they always had such luxuries such as expensive cars and the nice, big Uchiha mansion that needed a lot of economic efforts to be a nice home, the possibility of going out to expensive restaurants every night, Sasuke being able to study in the most famous and expensive university of all—which, of course, almost _begged_ for his entrance once Sasuke had such high grades and thanked them for choosing their university since the Uchiha Family had quite a reputation—and having the possibility of staying in a nice suit in Tokyo, which he left for one month to spend time with his older brother because he had two months' worth of vacation. Being aware of how cheap the salary of where Itachi 'worked'—which he absolutely didn't, that being something Sasuke was able to discover thanks to some research and some 'free time' to visit the office, though he never talked to Itachi about it—was, Sasuke was sharp enough to conclude that there was some dark business behind all the money they were able to get thanks to Itachi's little secret work that always took nocturne schedules.

But most of all, if there was something that bothered the raven, was all the traps Itachi sat around the house whenever he left for work. Mortal, well hidden traps—Sasuke wasn't even sure where half of them were—that were meant to cause real harm to whoever tried to enter in the mansion by force - or in any different way than through the front door for that matter, which was only opened by a six number code.

Opening his eyes with a terribly dark glare, Sasuke walked out of his room, the idea of being lied to fulfilling his mind. He cautiously walked up to the attic and tried to ignore his shaking hands as best as he could, his jaw clenched and his stomach making pitiful sounds. No, he wasn't scared.

He was simply itching to find the goddamn truth.

_This is it, Itachi. Whatever you're hiding from me, I will find out all about it_.

* * *

"Boooooriiiiing," A certain blonde haired boy annoyingly whined as he tossed his game cards on the table, declaring yet another lost game. He laid his forehead on the small table, slightly hitting against it multiple times. How could you be bored when you're part of a Front/Striking Squad in the most known and dangerous prison in Tokyo? That, Naruto Uzumaki didn't know, but it was, indeed, a rather calm—or, at least, what you could consider calm in a goddamn prison—day in _Shageki_ _no Prison_(1). The whole squads(2) except for the Tracking one – this squad including Kiba, Sai and Shino – and only three members of the Back-Up Team, which meant Temari, Kankurou and Hinata were also missing from the room, were present in the living/waiting room for the last three hours without a single order or any bit of action on their jobs. Of course the Uzumaki loved being in the Striking Squad with lazy ass Shikamaru, Neji, Lee and Gaara, but they were only called in dangerous situations, which were mostly confirmed once the tracking Squad had found any evidence – because it's better to prevent than to risk it, they always took some members from the Back Up Squad to back the Tracking one. The thing was, it always left them nervous to wait for any order, knowing their comrades were tracking down villains, but today was taking a lot of more time than usual for some action to finally make Naruto run out there and kick some villains' asses. No danger, no warnings—absolutely nothing.

"Aaaand you lost. Again," Shikamaru Nara commented the obvious as he tossed his own game on the coffee table, his words followed by a yawn "You know, Naruto, it's no fun to play against you. You keep losing and losing," He said as he leaned back against his chair, placing his both hands on the back of his head and watching with amusement as the blonde police in front of him kept hitting his head against the small table.

Naruto lifted his head, sending a frustrated glare at his friend "Shut up, Shika! I'm not even giving my all and it's our-" He paused to count with his fingers "-somethin-th game!"

The other just shrugged and yawned once again "Whatever you say, you still lost," He shook his head, his eyes looking up at the TV screen that was showing some football game to which Lee Rock was showing great enthusiasm to. Typical. He stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"I am so freakin' bored! See, this is why I hate night shifts. Nothing ever happens," Naruto whined once again, making the long haired boy sitting on the sofa turned to the TV twitch his eyebrow in annoyance. The blonde picked up some cards from the table and started making the first two pyramids that would support his soon to be huge card castle. Hell, yes. "Sometimes I wonder why I even took this job,"

"Save the world, make a difference… That kind of stuff," Shikamaru replied in a bored tone, resisting the urge to clap when Naruto constructed the first pyramids of what he assumed would turn into a card castle. It'd be too much of a drag, anyway. His hands were warm inside his pockets, so why bother?

"Oh, yeah. That," Naruto answered with the same bored tone "So much for 'saving the world'," He said with an annoyed pout, and then lifted his hands up and stared intensively at the base of his card castle when it started trembling, threating to fall down. He smiled proudly when it stopped, and returned to construct it.

"Well, isn't it a _good_ thing that there aren't people out there murdering or stealing?" Neji Hyuuga joined the conversation when he got bored of the football match—all he could hear was Lee 'encouraging the players', anyway—and turned around on the sofa so he could look at his two comrades.

"Well, yeah," Naruto said in a sheepish tone and slightly glared at Neji, his stupid logic totally ruining the blonde's _reason_ for whining. He then looked up at the TV screen, smirking when the game was finally over and showing the final results of the match. _Seems like Kiba just lost his little bet against Lee._

Fair enough, Lee seemed to be thinking the same as Naruto and came running to their table, making Naruto's dear card castle almost fall. _Almost_. Shikamaru seemed a bit worried, too, since calculating the best angles of where the different cards should be put on had become his entertainment.

Neji blinked a couple times, but then just sighed. "Another bet?" He asked, though he was pretty sure that was the situation.

"Yes, my dear Neji!" Lee cheerfully said, throwing an arm around the long haired boy's shoulders who seemed truly annoyed by the other's actions. "And this time, I won!—which means Kiba will be the one to pay for our next family dinner! Such a youthful, _brilliant_ bet!" The energetic boy exclaimed, flashing a smile. Naruto couldn't help but grin back as a picture of a very angry Inuzuka flashed through his mind. Oh, he would be sure to get the most expensive plate on the menu.

In the next second, Lee was behind Naruto, staring at his almost finished card castle. "What are you doing, Naruto-kun?" He asked, making Naruto jump on his chair and the castle tremble again. "No!" The blonde exclaimed, quickly covering Lee's mouth and only taking back his hand when the castle settled. He sighed in relief.

"It's a card castle," He whispered, making Lee blink a couple times before looking back at the card castle. It sure seemed to take some work.

"A card castle? That seems rather difficult to do! As I'd expect from my rival!" Lee exclaimed, again, only to have his mouth shut by Naruto's hand, _again_. The blonde sweat dropped.

"You can't talk loudly or they'll fall, Lee! It's almost finished! See? Only seven more cards, and we'll have the best card castle ever," The blonde said as he slowly picked two more cards from the table and began to slowly put them on top of the last ones, Lee's eyes cautiously following them. They both let out a deep breath of relief when another pyramid was made and their castle was still standing.

"We should name it," Lee whispered, his eyes never leaving the castle

"Yeah, totally," The blonde agreed and they both starting whispering names for their castle, Shikamaru and Neji making small talk in the process and going through TV channels.

* * *

After taking the key that was hidden inside his sock, breathing deeply, and, in a quick movement, unlocking the door and when he was at least 50% sure that there wouldn't be any knives falling from the ceiling to kill him, Sasuke was finally inside the darkness present in the long Forbidden place. He took his time to turn off all sort of cameras that had took him nearly three weeks to find through his laptop and lots of research, he finally closed the door and ripped a piece of the paper wall that revealed a hole, where an expensive and high-quality laptop awaited him. The Uchiha nodded again and turned it on, taking him almost two hours to be able to break through all sort of codes—as it was mentioned before, lost and lots of research. Some more anxious minutes had passed—

-And then he found it. Reading all the documents as fast as he could, the younger Uchiha's eyes went huge and the piece of technology fell to the ground with a loud thud when his hands began shaking. Staring blankly at the laptop for long, hurtful seconds and taking big amounts of time to let what he just read sink into his mind, a bunch of painful memories and events that had made no sense to him all this time finally began to fit together. Falling to his knees as his breath became uneven, the lost Uchiha stared at his shaking hands, not being able to feel the warm tears that had started to unconsciously roll down his cheeks.

* * *

"_You don't need to worry about money, little brother. I'll give you everything you need, no matter what it takes,"_

"_This work will mostly be done at night, so you won't have to be alone at home,"_

"_Do NOT go to the attic, you hear me? You will be severely punished if you do so. And remember, Sasuke, that everything I do—I do for a reason and one reason only – to keep my promise to you,"_

"_Don't worry about me, little brother, I am happy as long as you are. So tell me, are you happy, Sasuke?"_

"_I will never allow you to be sent to an orphanage. If it's money we need to prevent that from happening, then that's what I will get,"_

"_Study hard and follow your own path, so you won't end up like me. School is very important, and it is your duty to study, understood?"_

"_Never give out information to strangers – no matter who it is, don't talk to strangers. Don't trust people easily or you will get hurt,"_

"_Sometimes one must sacrifice himself to make others happy, even if it means ruining your whole life—because you know as long as that person is happy, life will still have a meaning,"_

"_Even with father's fortune stolen, we won't fall because of money, Sasuke. Money is an easy luxury to get nowadays," _

"_I'll do anything to keep up my promise to you, little brother. __**Anything**__,"_

* * *

Weakly covering his ears with his vulnerable pale hands, the raven allowed a sob to escape from deep inside his throat, hating the feeling of feeling so vulnerable for the second time in his life—hating the feeling of failing to protect the ones he held dear to him.

* * *

Two arguing female voices echoed through the hallway before entering the room. Naruto didn't even need to look up to guess who they were because 1) he was too worried that his and Lee's baby, as they had decided, would fall and die due to the noise and 2) because the nicknames 'Forehead' or 'Ino pig' were just too obvious.

"—Well, if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't even have become a medic, so there!" Sakura Haruno argued, crossing her arms over her chest and sending a small smirk at the blonde girl's direction that was in front of her, blushing from embarrassment and… angriness?

"Don't get cocky, Forehead! Just because you finished your course first than me, it doesn't mean anything! You almost killed that guy back there!" Ino Yamanaka's comeback filled the room and it was her time to smirk, the boys in the room looking bored – seeing the two medics arguing was something they were more than used to.

"The idiot called me ugly!" The pink haired girl shouted, and Ino totally bought that as a valid argument, their discussion ending up in a fit of laughter. They walked up to the table, Ino quickly sitting next to Shikamaru and starting a small conversation, though the blonde girl was mostly the one to talk. Sakura lifted a confused, perfect pink eyebrow at Lee's and Naruto's panicked expressions and then sent a questioning look at Neji, who just face-palmed at the two boys' ridiculous reactions and pointed at the card castle. The pink haired medic didn't seem to get it so she got between them from behind, leaning forward to the table, each arm on each boys' shoulders.

"Hey, Naruto, Lee! What are you guys doi—"

"NOOO, SUSAN!(3)" They both yelled in panic—getting weird looks from Ino and Shikamaru in the process—as the card castle suddenly fell, cards falling on the table and all over the floor.

Sakura's eyebrows drew in confusion as Lee kneeled over the cards and cried, trying to pick all of them up and rub his cheek against the pieces of paper. Naruto stood up and pointed an accusing finger at her. "LOOK WHAT YOU DID, SAKURA-CHAN!" He yelled out.

A nerve popped on her forehead.

"YOU KILLED HER! YOU MONSTER!" The blonde yelled again.

Her eyebrow twitched.

Naruto was about to keep playing the role of the brave father, but quickly stepped back when he noticed the Sakura's expression. He waved his both hands in front of his chest in a defensive matter. "N-Nevermind, Sakura-chan! We can always remake her and—OW!" He cried out when receiving a hard punch from the pinkette.

"NARUTO, YOU IDIOT!" She yelled and began lecturing him about how he should be preparing for an any-moment-now danger situation instead of joking around, taking her a long time to explain him that it was _just a cards castle_, when three new figures walked through the door. Everyone looked up, their attention drawn to the three men.

"Now, now! Look at all this youth! Just what I'd expect from a group of young adults, ready to go out there at any time and save the world!" Gai Might exclaimed, automatically receiving an energetic 'Gai-Sensei!' yell in return. Naruto glared at Lee's back. Was _Gai_ really more important than _Susan_? What kind of dad was he?!

His greeting was followed by a much more laid-back 'Yo' – Kakashi Hatake followed behind, his eyes only lifting from his book for some seconds before going back to it, and then a strong, friendly arm wrapped around the silver haired man's shoulders, Obito Miyagi(4) appearing in the room with a giant grin.

"Yo!" He mimicked his best friend in a much louder version, only to try and peck on his Icha Icha Paradise book, receiving a sigh from Kakashi. Naruto's blue eyes automatically lit up as he looked at Obito, grinning at him. The other smiled, giving him a thumbs up.

"Hey, kiddo! Hanging in there?"

"Of course, 'Ito! Bored as hell, but still alive!" Naruto grinned "Who knew being a policeman could be so boring?" The blonde said with a frustrated sigh, making Obito laugh out loud. Obito had been Naruto's idol—along with his mother—since the first week he was accepted to work as a special agent. Due to their identical personalities, the two of them had quickly formed a strong bond – the kind of bond anyone would have with a brother.

"Watch your mouth, Naruto! Your dad would be disappointed!" The older adult said with a wink before walking to the coffee machine with Kakashi.

"Who'd be disappointed?" Minato Namikaze asked with a raised eyebrow as he entered the room, making Obito chock on his black coffee and receive a few strong pats on his back from Gai.

"Yo, boss," Shikamaru greeted along with the others, Ino and Sakura too busy giggling at Obito and... fangirling over him?.

"Hey, dad! Got anythin' for us?" Naruto asked with big, hopeful blue eyes.

"Sorry Naruto, but no. Seems like you guys will have the rest of the night fr—"

"Boss, boss!" A female voice shouted along with hurried footsteps, only stopping when she was being supported by the door, panting and her breath heavy. Everyone in the room looked at Tenten Atenine(5), Gaara appearing some seconds after. The whole group automatically got to their feet when noticing Gaara's worried expression – they knew something was up, and Naruto couldn't be more excited about it. She looked up at Minato worriedly before gulping, and the whole situation was making everyone in the room scared of what was coming.

"I got information from the tracking team, and…" She paused, taking another deep breath.

"…And they might have found the Akatsuki's hideout," Gaara finished for her, his pale eyes finally looking over at everyone present in the room… and stopping at the Uzumaki, whose eyes had gone huge and his breath had gotten trapped in his throat. The blonde frowned in frustration and stared at his own feet, having trouble processing what he's just heard, and unconsciously clenching his fists so hard his knuckles began turning white. The Akatsuki were a dangerous, famous and very well organized group of high ranked criminals that weren't even identified since the police had never had, once in the crime story, been able to know the slightest bit about the members. They consisted of highly skilled drug dealers, and even some _murderers_. Naruto glared at the ground, that last word fulfilling his mind.

Minato cleared his throat, making Naruto jump from his place. He nodded at his son and then looked at everyone in the room, assuming a commanding expression.

"Here's the chance we've been waiting for," Minato said in a low, serious tone before clapping his hands together "Go, and don't let them escape! We're sending the reinforcements!" And just like that, everyone in the room got his deathly masks on and rushed out of the room to get everything they'd need ready, Shikamaru shouting their plan's name and the Squads nodding in agreement.

When Naruto was practically running out the room and angrily shaking, he felt his father's strong hand grab his shoulder and push him back when he was about to pass him.

"Naruto, do not act recklessly. Remember, you've got your comrades with you," He paused, continuing when his son hesitantly nodded in agreement. "I believe in you, son. Now, go!" He said and patted the younger blonde's shoulder. Naruto nodded once again, and walked to get his bulletproof vest, clenching his fists. "Thank you, dad," He whispered to himself, determination showing on his features.

In a blink of an eye, Tenten already had their guns ready, giving a special TAR-21 Assault Rifle powerful one to Naruto and offering him a determinate smile.

"That's how you rule, ne, Uzumaki?" She said, patting his favourite 'babe', as Naruto liked to call it.

"You _bet_ I do," The blonde quietly replied and gladly took his gun, his jaw clenched and anger shouting through his veins as he zipped his black jacket all the way to the top, covering his bulletproof vest. He kept his deathly glare on as he jumped into the dark blue van along his Squad, the adrenaline and the need to release such nostalgia growing by the second.

"Naruto,"

He looked at the side and, in the next second, Shikamaru was offering him a tight hug "We'll do it. Together. You can count on us."

The blonde gladly and slowly returned the hug, feeling like he had all the support in the world when the rest of the squad nodded at him and offered him reassuring smiles.

And when the van started, Kakashi guiding, he knew it—_that this was it_.

He was going to finally fucking have the _chance_ to arrest them.

Between that huge group of criminals, was the man who killed his beloved mother.

* * *

1: _Shageki_ means gun or fire shot; I wanted to make the prison seems as strict and infallible as a shotgun, eh.

2: The way the Squads work will be based on the manga – it's just like them turning into one big team with different Squads that work in different ways and follow the Hokage's order, but they're special agents/medics instead of shinobi. And the Squads are changed, as well.

3: Gotta love Eddsworld. xD

4: Obito is not related to the Uchiha clan in this story, or it'd complicate the whole thing. I just _really_ had to put him here cause he's one of my favourite characters!

5: I'm not sure if that's her second name, but that's all I found on Google. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Well, and that was the first chapter. Hope it's not too rushed! Thanks for reading and please review!


	2. Everyone's feels

**A/N:** Heyaa peps! So, first of all, I want to thank everyone who reviewed, followed and favourited my first chapter—it really made me happy! Specially because this is my first fanfiction ever :DD And I'm sorry for the late update, but it was Christmas and New Year, so I spent that precious time with a part of my family that I miss and love so much, just like everyone else, I suppose? This chapter was a complicated one to write, though. Also, school has just started (-_-) and s'gonna be a complicated year for me, but I really have to do my best. I'll dedicate as much time as I can for this story, though!

I'm aware that the first chapter and this one have a lot of scenes happening at the same time, but that ends in the next chapter, where the different scenes will eventually meet and it'll be mostly about Naruto and Sasuke's relationship. So please, bear with me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Sadly.

So, enough about me and here's the second chapter! Please tell me your honest opinions and thanks in advice!

* * *

"**What's the situation? Repeat, what's the situation?" **A low female voice could be listened through the police's radio that was hidden on a tree with the leaves surrounding him. Kiba Inuzuka did not answer because he knew—he knew that the smallest noise could be his biggest mistake. And, he was sure his comrade would get that.

"**One click for yes, two clicks for no(1)."** The low voice said once again and sucked in a deep breath, then let it out **"Are you hidden?"**

Kiba clicked once on the radio's back button.

"**Was the information from one of the Akatsuki members that we were able to get correct? Is that the house?"**

Kiba didn't move.

The voice waited some seconds, then talked again. **"Three clicks for not-sure answers,"**

Kiba clicked thrice.

"**Are you closer than twenty meters to the house?"**

Kiba clicked one time, closing his eyes tightly when the worrying voice changed to an angry one. Count on her to make Kiba more scared of his comrade then of the fucking drug dealer that could be in the house right in front of him. He sweat dropped.

"**K-Kiba, what were you thinking?! You're a part of the Tracking Down Squad, you can't do that kind of stuff alone! I—" **She paused to breathe again, then sighed. **"Is someone in the house?"**

Kiba clicked once, though he wasn't really sure about it, but it's always better to prevent than to risk it. It's always much better to have the Squads ready to attack at full force even if the danger is not as big as they thought, then to face a big villain and not being ready.

As much as he hated to admit it, his comrade was right, but he was the quickest one along with Akamaru, so he'd taken a shortcut. Sai and Shino were sent to look in other directions, but it looked like only Kiba got the right way. The brunette smirked a little to himself – he and his dog were still the best at tracking down villains, after all.

"**Okay. Okay,"** She said, a determinate emotion showing on her pale eyes "**We've called reinforcements and they were able to take seven Akatsuki members to prison, but four of them were able to escape. The Striking Squad was already informed along with the medics and they're on their way here, as you already know. I'll let the Striking Squad know the directions to that house,**" Kiba nodded, listening carefully to the plan. The whole situation was just freaking him out, as much as he hated to admit it—seven members caught, four ran away easily as if expecting it to happen, leaving no clues, no identity—absolutely nothing. All they had was the information they were able to get from one of the caught members, who had to be tortured by Ibiki and his Squad - the elder Squad, who consisted of Izumo, Kotetsu, and a lot of other people that not even Kiba was sure if existed or not – until he eventually spit out one of the member's residence. And now here was Kiba, in what he was almost absolutely sure was one of the villain's 'home'. He tsk'ed. That was a freaking nice mansion.

"**We're using Snake Plan—Shikamaru's orders**," He nodded once again when the female voice cracked on the radio one more time. "**Kiba, please be careful. Don't do anything stupid, yeah?**" She waited some seconds and the Inuzuka was about to answer, when something around one of the mansion's bottom window shined. His black eyes went huge.

Something just wasn't right.

"**I'm ou—"** The female voice was about to excuse herself, but Kiba grabbed the radio in panic, his heart pounding furiously into his chest.

"—**Wait!"** Kiba whispered loudly into the peace of technology and Akamaru looked at his owner. Kiba was still staring at the window, the thin transparent thread that was above it slightly shinning against the full moon's light. He narrowed his eyes as if trying to clear his vision in the dark and tried to follow the thin thread as much as he could with his black eyes, but it was almost impossible. _Almost._

And that's when it hit him.

"**Holy **_**shit**_**…"** He whispered again and gulped, his hand unconsciously going for the gun he had on his belt. **"This house…"**

The girl on the other line waited, feeling nervous.

"…**seems to be full of fucking **_**traps**_**."**

Hyuuga Hinata(2) let a growl escape from her throat and angrily turned off the radio, finally deciding that she shouldn't—or couldn't—waste any more time worrying about his comrade. As much as she hated it, that's how things were. She had to inform the Squads and let them elaborate the perfect plan. That was the only way to be sure that whoever was in the goddamn mansion…

…was going to be arrested.

"Alright, listen up!" She shouted and placed an hand on her hip, assuming a commanding position and glaring at every police around her whose eyes drove up and down her body as the moon's light shined on her dark blue hair and on the pale skin showing on her waist, the girl's black coat sliding down her shoulders and reviling a grey t-shirt with a bulletproof vest under it. Hinata was waiting for the rest of her squad to return from the prison since they had gone there to make sure the arrested Akatsuki members were in good hands and even get a 'little information', as Ibiki Morino had put it. So while they were gone, she was stuck with a bunch of policemen that had been called from other Posts to assist them. Some were still recovering from the long mission—there were two ambulances since a couple of them even had broken legs or arms—and some others were just staring at her or laughing happily that they were able to finally get some of the so well-known criminal group.

_What a bunch of fools! It's not even over yet!_ She thought and tsk'ed, but allowed herself to calm down a little when the dark blue van could finally be seen turning a corner and stopping besides the ambulances.

Temari no Subaku jumped from the back of the van and smirked, automatically grabbing her gun and placing it just above her shoulder as she walked over to the Hyuuga.

"What's the situation, Hinata?" The blonde girl questioned, knowing that look on Hinata's face way too well. The dark haired girl could assume a scary yet determinate attitude when facing villains—and that's why she was such a good police.

"We've got fresh, bad news. I contacted Kiba, and there are traps all around the mansion he's spotted. Kiba's not sure if that's the house; it could be some kind of ambush—but there's someone inside there. He's hidden in a tree, alone with Akamaru. Sai and Shino should catch up with him in no time,"

"Tch, typical from that Inuzuka," Kankurou no Subaku angrily said as he, too, jumped from the van, placing his huge puppet-like killing machine on the ground and leaning his arm against it, his other hand inside his pocket. "Just because he's got a good dog he thinks he can get 'em all at once, eh? Curse him and his stupid cocky attitude!"

"What's the matter, brother? Angry that Kiba wins most of his bets against you?" Temari gave him a knowing smirk, only to get smacked on her head when a tall body jumped from the van, too. She pouted and rubbed her head, noticing Kankurou was glaring at the huge man that had hit them and copying her actions.

"This isn't the time for jokes! We're on serious business!" Ibiki yelled at the two siblings and nodded a bit to Hinata, still glaring. Nothing personal—Ibiki just seemed to glare at everyone. "I heard about Kiba, Hinata. Contact the Striking Squad right away, there's no time to lose! Kankurou, you try to contact Shino and Sai, and have them assisting Kiba. Once you're done," he paused and looked away from the puppet master to stare at the tree of them, "You'll be assisting the Striking Squad. All caution isn't enough… specially when having that Uzumaki in a mission like this. He'll mostly do something stupid," Ibiki growled, getting glares from the three of them, though he seemed to ignore it or they simply didn't affect him. Suddenly, Hinata seemed to lose a bit of her determinate and cocky attitude and return to her insecure self. Temari glared harder at their 'captain' and pat the dark haired girl's shoulder that seemed to wake up with the touch. She nodded, and then the three of them took separate ways to do what they had been told to.

If Ibiki Morino hated Naruto Uzumaki? Not necessarily, he just really thought of his boss' son as a useless police and someone too kind and inexperienced to even work at a prison. At first, he was actually surprised at the young adult's success at the tricky test Ibiki gave him and a lot of others that were trying to pass, but everything changed when Naruto had the goddamn _guts_ to insult him and his torturing ways, calling him all sort of names and growling or glaring whenever the huge man passed by him. The blond even had the courage to go ask his father to change the whole plans, insisting that torturing just made police as _bad_ as the villains(3), but then again, there was really nothing Minato could do. Ibiki smirked a little at the thought and shook his head.

"_Stupid kid has no fucking chance of ever becoming a good police or understanding what a prison is or works like," _

"_Then I'll change the way of Shageki no Prison! You just watch, bastard! And then I'll fucking fire you!" _Was the blonde's response to Ibiki a week after he was accepted as a police in the Back-Up Squad, later entering to the Striking one due to his stamina and determination. Somehow, the older man had the feeling it'd take him a long time to give up on such stupid dreams and expectations. You resolve violence with violence in the prison's world. That's how it's always been and worked, and that's how it'll always be and work. Besides, would it be any fun if there weren't torturing rooms?

Smirking one last time, Ibiki felt more than ready for what was to come, even though he wouldn't be keeping company at the Squad.

_The one responsible for Kushina's death might even be in that house, after all… Hm… Perhaps the kid's going to understand a bit more about torturing criminals. This sure is going to be interesting. _

He thought and, with a loud sound, recharged his shotgun.

* * *

Allowing his body to stay paralyzed in a sitting positing on the ground and leaning against the wall with a blank expression on his face, only blinking from time to time and the few rays of moonlight that difficultly entered the small cursed room through the window present in a far spot close to the ceiling making his already pale skin look even paler, was Sasuke. As a dark cloud moved away from the full moon and allowed a few more rays to light the Uchiha's face, Sasuke allowed his head to slightly move up to look at the ceiling with the same sorrowed expression, his dark bangs slowly sliding to uncover his face. He slowly closed his eyes and felt the senses returning to the tips of his fingers. Biting the inside of his cheek one more time and desperately wanting to clench his hands with all his strength to stop the guilty feelings from coming and coming to his mind, he couldn't help but feel vulnerable and lame.

He tried to make his mind think that none of it was happening, that it was all like an illusion – but trying to make your mind think the opposite of reality was never something Sasuke – or any Uchiha, for that matter – was able to do. He was used to accept reality. He was used to being serious, to accept things as they were.

And he's never regretted it so much in his whole life.

Slowly Looking over the room, Sasuke's eyes eventually stopped to stare at the bottom of one of the drawers in the desk, noticing that one of them had a hole on it.

And then he saw four red digits in there, appearing and disappearing from ten in ten seconds. Sasuke allowed his hands to slowly uncover his face and glared at the red digits.

Just what the heck was that about?

Feeling unsure and nervous, the raven crawled closer to the desk so he could get a better look at it. Studying the small piece of technology and feeling like he had seen it before, his eyes went huge when realization took over his mind.

It was fucking _explosive_ material.

He stared at it for some seconds, then let out a deep breath he didn't know was holding.

_Think, Sasuke. Calm down and think! _He nodded to himself when a voice that sounded strangely like his brother's echoed through his mind. _Why would he put this on his desk? Why inside a drawer? Why—_

But it was so obvious. _To destroy all the information in that room._ It'd explode if anyone tried to open the drawer the wrong way(4). Nodding to himself once again, his dark eyes looked deeper into the hole in the drawer, and he could notice a thin thread connecting it to the fake bottom. The thread went around the whole desk, through the ceiling, and stopped at that hole where the laptop was hidden before. He could bet lives that the thread was full of oil. Sasuke smirked, though a bit of sweat rolled down his forehead. _Typical from him, using these threads. For him to go this far, it means that whatever is in that drawer is precious. Money…? No, or the money would burn along with the information. Information—that's it. Or it could be an ambush. Hn…_

Sasuke bit his thumbnail. His head was starting to hurt.

Itachi knew that Sasuke was aware of his trick, so perhaps he wanted his little brother to open the drawer? He'd risk putting such a trap for his brother—

—Because he knew Sasuke and only Sasuke would be able to open the drawer in the only way that wouldn't burn all the information in the room.

Biting his lip, Sasuke began doing what his brother wanted him to do so.

* * *

"What? What is it? _What's_ going on?!" Naruto nervously asked as he got to his feet inside the van that was still moving, his both hands on the front seat's back "Kakashi, what's Hinata tellin' you?"

Kakashi ignored the blond police so he could listen to Hinata. It was getting rather difficult.

"Just sit back and be patient, you idiot! How do you expect Kakashi to listen to the information if you keep yelling at his ears?" Neji stepped in, his arms closed, with a rather annoyed yet calm expression on his face.

Naruto parted his lips to argue, but then closed them again as he looked at his comrades. He sat back with an annoyed pout.

"Okay, thank you Hinata. Kakashi out." The silver head man said into the radio and then placed it on the charger with a heavy sigh.

"What is it?" Naruto asked right away, jumping to his feet. Neji was about to argue again, but Shikamaru put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

"Leave it, Neji," Shikamaru sighed "It's useless."

Kakashi suddenly and roughly turned to drive to the exact opposite direction. Naruto fell to the car's ground and Lee helped him right away. Gaara lifted an eyebrow in amusement.

"We're meeting with the Back-Up Squad before. Not only did they find the Akatsuki hide out…"

The boys listened to him with wide eyes.

"…Ibiki's Squad was able to get information from one of the Akatsuki members—"

"—_One of the Akatsuki members?!_ What the heck? They were able to get them?" Shikamaru suddenly shouted, expressing everyone's feelings and thoughts.

"Seven of them were caught, four escaped. Obviously, the Back-Up Squad didn't do it alone. A lot of other police were called for support, and as they say—"

"—The union makes the strength! Police united against the evil, this is what I call team work!" Lee suddenly exclaimed and jumped to his feet. Naruto smiled at his friend's words, though he was still shocked with the news.

Kakashi sighed "This is no time for celebrations just yet. As I was saying, Ibiki's Squad was able to get information when they took the caught members to prison," Naruto tsk'ed "and they were able to localize one of the villain's residence. Kiba was the one who arrived first and is currently alone—"

"—He's _alone_? In _there_?!" Naruto panicked, the anger noticeable on his voice as he imagined the dog lover _alone_ at a fucking villain's residence. "What the heck? Why did he go alone? _Why_ did they let him go alone?!"

"I don't know, Naruto, but listen and stop freaking out. You must stay calm." Kakashi said with a heavy breath. He knew what was coming

"Don't tell me to stop freaking out when my best friend is alone at a _fucking_ _villain's residence! _What kind of teamwork is this, huh? What the fuck is going? I—"

"—NARUTO!" Kakashi interrupted the blonde with a loud yell and in a quick and agile movement, stopped the blue van at the road's border. He turned around, ignoring the other's surprised and terrified faces. Kakashi Hatake rarely yelled. "You're not the only who feels that way, but the important thing is that maybe we've found one of their residences! Sai and Shino weren't able to do it as fast as Kiba, so it's his own fault for not waiting for his comrades. This is a golden chance!" Naruto was about to interrupt him again, but Kakashi raised his hand "Tell me, Naruto. Do you want to protect your comrades? To help Kiba?" Kakashi asked, knowing the blonde's plot twists way to well.

Naruto nodded a bit, his jaw clenched and his eyes locked on the car's ground.

"Do you want to arrest the man who murdered your mother?"

Naruto raised his eyes from the ground.

"Then stop freaking out and think! Think about what's the best for your comrades! What's the best plan to arrest them! We must meet with the Back-Up Squad before we go help Kiba or we'll be all caught or even killed, and you know that. You know that we need the perfect plan. You know that we need as much help as we can get before we help Kiba, or we'll fail and we'll all die." The silver haired man said in a much calmer tone as he noticed Naruto had calmed down a little too. He sighed and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"We can do this."

Naruto nodded a little and sat back with a frown, looking down and feeling ashamed at the mess he's just created. Now they had just lost even more time.

Kakashi looked at him for some more seconds, studying his expression, and then turned to the steering wheel once again. He took a deep breath. "We're going at full speed now, boys. You better hold on." He said and in a quick movement and with a tearing and loud sound the car made, they were on the road again.

Naruto turned his head to the side when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Lee showed that determinate shinny smile of his and offered his friend a thumbs up. Naruto smiled, feeling a whole lot better now.

And when the van roughly turned a cover, everyone heard a loud thud and some painful moans. The whole Squad broke into laughs when looking at a mad Shikamaru who had fallen on his butt. Yes, Naruto did feel a whole lot better now.

* * *

"_Kiba._" A voice that sounded almost like a whisper said from behind the policeman.

"YIKE!" The brunette silently yelled and quickly turned around, only to sweat-drop when Shino Aburame could be seen behind him with a really unhappy expression. The thought that his friend was able to climb the tree so silently freaked him out. "Shino, you idiot! You can't just scare me like that when we're in the middle of a mission like this!"

"Oh, so now you mean _we_ are on a mission?"

Kiba sweat-dropped again "Oh, come on, man! I couldn't let an opportunity like this die!" The Inuzuka desperately whispered and turned to the house again, checking if anyone had heard them.

"You're a terrible comrade, Kiba Inuzuka." Shino said and the other just sighed.

"Anyway, where's Sai?"

"Who, our other _comrade_? The other one who is supposed to work _together_ with you?" Shino accused again, adjusting his dark glasses. A nerve popped on the dog lover's forehead.

"Shut up!" Kiba whispered loudly, and then a dark figure made the tree's leaves tremble a little as he climbed it. Kiba and Shino immediately looked down, smiling when Sai reached the top and sat on a huge branch and made sure the leaves covered them.

"We've finally found you, Kiba." Sai said with that smile of his.

Kiba gave a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of his head "Ehehe… good job?" He tried, giving a thumbs up.

Sai just lifted an eyebrow at him. "Everyone's pretty worried about you, so prepare to having them either hugging you to death or sending you death curses," Sai frowned for a while, then looked at Kiba with the same smile as some seconds ago "You'll die, either way."

Kiba gave him a look, though a shiver ran down his spine when imagining Hinata's reaction. He was a dead man.

"We're together now and that's what counts. I'll let Kankurou know." Shino interrupted their chat.

Kiba smirked when hearing the puppet master's name "Eh, tell him he's lost his bet, by the way. I'm pretty sure he already knows about it, though."

Shino was about to talk into the radio, but then stopped to slowly looked at Kiba. "All of this because of another of your stupid bets?"

* * *

With the drawer opened and an Uchiha wondering for the hundredth time if he should or shouldn't look into it, he finally got the goddamn guts to do so.

There was only one piece of paper perfectly folded. Sasuke frowned and, without hesitation, grabbed it and unfolded it. On the paper, a long letter was perfectly written in black ink. A lot of the sentences were crossed and written again, as if Itachi was unsure of what he wanted to transmit his younger brother. Sasuke shook his head a little.

_That's something unusual for Itachi to do._

So he started reading the so mysterious piece of paper.

_Dear little brother,_

_Seems that this took you more time than I expected. You've probably found out all about it if you're reading this, even though I'm pretty you already knew or suspected it, am I correct? You've always been a sharp kid, so this is no surprise to me._

_Why am I writing this? Because, well, everyone has a moment in their lives where they feel like cowards or like they're not able to do something because they're scared of what might happen after. As much as I dislike to admit it, this is how I feel about this subject. So I decided I would let you know why I did what I did through this letter. I will tell you everything about the Uchiha Family._

_Our family was murdered. True, they died on a fire, but it was set on purpose. No one ever found out about it. And I didn't want to leave my younger brother in some orphanage, so going to the university was out of question. Father's fortune was stolen and nothing was left from that fire, so I needed money to be able to take care of you properly. _

_That's when a mysterious man called Madara joins the picture. He simply invited me to be a part of the Akatsuki, promising me a big amount of money. I hesitated at first. For months, I could not decide what to do. But seeing my little brother happy was my priority and the only thing that kept me going forward—and I do realize this might sound a little selfish, but if you weren't happy, then what reason would I have for living? So, I accepted it. And all that money, all those dinners, all those luxuries—we were able to get it thanks to that job. It was easy. I was excellent—the best, actually. Of course I had to keep my dignity, so I just cursed anyone who tried to get me into those disgusting drugs._

_Shocking, isn't it? _

_Please try to understand, Sasuke. But, you are twenty-one years old, so who am I to tell you what to do? You can hate me. I won't stop you from doing so, but I don't regret any of what I did. If you decide to leave, then mark my words, little brother._

_Make friends. Don't ever follow my path. Don't allow sorrow to take over your body. Live for yourself and for the ones you love the most._

_And whatever you decide to do from now on, _

_**I will love you forever.**_

_Itachi_

Sasuke stared at the letter for a long time, refusing to believe everything he's just read.

His parents were murdered. They didn't die on any fucking accident, they were _murdered!_

An angry single tear fell on the paper, others following a second later.

* * *

Though she was running everywhere to make sure everything was ready, Temari immediately noticed when a dark blue van like the one she was in before was parked violently and perfectly besides a taxi.

_Eh, with Kakashi guiding, that's just no surprise. _She thought, smirking when noticing the poor poor cabby's terrified expression and Kakashi giving a nervous laugh and raising his gloved hand at the man, apologizing.

In a flash, a whole squad of young adults jumped from the vehicle in their glory sexiness and black jackets(5), plus the killing yet determinate expressions on their faces. It was easy to point out a certain one that looked maybe a little more anxious or more itching to go to the goddamn mission than the others, but that was to expect.

Temari grabbed her radio from her belt and said into it, "**Hot Squad has arrived. Hurry.**" She chocked a little when hearing Kankuro's annoyed growl. Hinata and Ibiki were more than used to her 'jokes', so they just usually sighed and ignored it.

The Squad walked to Temari, Kakashi on the front and nodding while Shikamaru talked to him with a deep frown. Ibiki appeared behind the blonde girl with a scroll in his hand and a slight smirk on his scared face.

"It's about time, Kakashi. Took you more time than usual, eh?" The man said, immediately opening the scroll on the small table that was on Temari's left side.

Kakashi stuffed his hands inside his pockets, "We had some complications." He simply said. Naruto awkwardly shrugged.

Hinata and Kankurou appeared in the next second and they all rounded the table to listen to the plan and information. It was no time for greetings or celebrating – so the Back Up and Striking Squads simply nodded at one another, transmitting determination and hope to his comrades just by doing that. That was how teamwork worked between them and that's how it'd always be. Working as a police on special missions and putting your life on the line every day because you believe you're bringing a little more peace to the world was only possible if you had someone by your side who'd always support you and help you whenever you needed. Being a hero alone was no easy task. And that was what Naruto loved the most about his work.

Ten minutes later, and everyone had understood everything about the plan and their positions. It wasn't their first time doing this—but it has never been so mysterious and dangerous before. Because they were not sure of what or who they'd find in there, because it was probably the residence of a high ranked criminal, because the mansion was full of professional traps everywhere. Naruto felt the adrenaline built up inside his stomach.

Ibiki closed the scroll in a quick movement and looked at all of them. "I've done my part. Now, it's your turn to show what you all got. And," He looked at Naruto "Don't screw up."

Naruto glared at the man and was about to start something, but Kakashi put a hand on his shoulder. The blonde tsk'ed.

"Okay, people!" Kakashi assumed his commanding role as he turned around to face the two Squads, who were now one big team "It's time to arrest some criminals!" And with that, the whole gang grinned at their captain's words and ran to a black police van that was especially reserved for that mission.

They were so going to do it.

* * *

**1:** Saw it on a Bones episode :P I'm not a big fan of the serie, I just happened to be randomly skipping channels and yeah.

**2:** Let's just say Hinata turns into Sassy Hina (from Road to Ninja) at work.

**3:** I know it's a weird idea, but I kind of agree with it—sometimes, I mean. I wanted to put different ideas in this story: Ibiki's and Naruto's, because I really imagine him thinking that way.

**4:** From Death Note :P

**5:** I FREAKING HAD TO! Can you imagine the whole Konoha gang like that?! *drools*

And this was the second chapter. I'm a bit insecure about the letter Itachi left Sasuke D; What did ya guys think?


	3. Infiltration

**A/N:** WOOO! Two updates in two days! This chapter and the second one were originally one chapter only, but they turned out too long, so I divided it into two. So, here's the third one everyone! Naruto will be meeting Sasuke in this one and—WOOPS! SPOILER!

Disclaimer: Even though I keep Sasuke locked in my wardrobe, I don't own the series. *silently crying*

Anyway, go on and enjoy it. Hope this one is not too rushed D;

* * *

"Okay. Okay," Kiba said to himself, trying to calm down "We've spotted five traps. That's, uh, kind of good, right?"

"It's terrible." Shino simply answered, ruining his partner's hope with his stupid logic. _Again._

"Oh, come on! Where's all the optimism, eh?" Kiba desperately whispered and turned his head to Sai, who was smiling. "See? Sai's optimistic, too!"

"Optimism and reality are two different thing, Kiba." Shino and his logic strike again. The brunette just sighed. As much as he hated to admit it, his partner was right.

A voice coming from his radio made him concentrate on his mission again. He took it from his belt.

"**Kiba here,**"

"**Kiba. Shikamaru here. We've arrived, and we'll be striking in the next five minutes. Got anything new for us?**"

"**No, not much. I already told you where the traps were—but you gotta watch your step, man. This shit seems to be full of that thin thread.**"

"**We've got the perfect plan, so don't need to worry. We'll be acting now—**"

"—**Hey, Shika**?"

"**Yeah**?"

"**Please, be careful. All of you.**" He said, feeling kind of silly – but watching your friends entering a goddamn villain's residence wasn't easy. He just wanted them all to get out of there alive.

"**We will, Kiba. Shikamaru out.**" The police excused himself and took a deep breath, praying for his promised to be fulfilled. He then nodded at Kakashi and at Tenten and quickly got to his hidden spot, watching the mansion just like Gaara, Lee, Naruto and Neji were currently doing from their own positions that weren't closer than ten meters to the residence, their weapons ready to attack at any moment. Four meters away was Temari, Kankurou and Hinata, who would be backing up their comrades as they advanced, no matter what.

* * *

"_Kiba—__**crack**__—here,"_

"_Kiba. Shikamaru—__**crack**__—here. We've arrived, and—__**crack**__—we'll be striking in the next—__**crack**__—two minutes. Got anything—__**crack**__—new for us?"_

"_No, not much. I already—__**crack**__—told you where the—__**crack**__—traps were—but you gotta watch—__**crack**__—your step, man. This shit seems to be—__**crack**__—full of that thin thread every—__**crack**__—where."_

The sour and somehow deformed voices that suddenly spoke into the dark room made Sasuke's heart skip a beat and the raven got to his feet in a jump, the letter from his brother falling on the floor. His eyes looked around the room and tried to figure out where that sound came from.

They stopped on a small, black and almost not visible radio placed on the corner of the room, but now all that the gadget did was groan until it eventually stopped. Waiting a few more seconds, Sasuke cautiously walked to it and observed the piece of technology.

It was a police's radio.

Sasuke's eyes were so huge he thought they were eventually going to fall out. Count on his brother to be able to steal a goddamn police's radio—but it was dirty, in a bad state and seemed kind of hold, so there was also the possibility that he had found it somewhere. Or bought it. Sasuke frowned.

He sat there, staring at the radio for some seconds, when realization finally seemed to fulfill his mind.

"…_**We've arrived, and we'll be striking in the next two minutes…"**_

"…_**I already told you where the traps were—but you gotta watch your step, man. This shit seems to be full of that thin thread everywhere…"**_

_Oh, fuck._ Sasuke thought to himself and unconsciously backed off from the radio. "Oh fuck, fuck, fuck…" His mind spoke out loud and his breathe started to get faster and faster.

_Think, Sasuke, think! I can't escape, and even if I could, Itachi would get caught because of this room and the information. I can't say I'm innocent, they won't believe me. I could… I could burn down all of this. But then they'd assume I'm the drug dealer they're looking for and—_

He stopped as an idea—a solution, a way of doing something right in his life and for his older brother—came through his mind. He stared at his own hands for a long time, thinking, and then let his hands deadly fall to his sides.

_This is my chance. It's my turn to protect you, Itachi. _

And just like that, something terribly loud started to explode over and over again out there, and for Sasuke, it was the sound of what future had reserved for him.

The police had made their move.

The game had begun.

* * *

"Good, good!" exclaimed Kakashi, who tried to be heard over the explosions that were happening all around the mansion's terrain – that way, the small threads that could be anywhere on the ground would disappear, and it'd give the whole squad the advantage of being able to run to the front door without having to watch their step on the grass with much attention. Those were small explosions that meant no warm for anyone who was at least two meters away from them. And there was no one better than Tenten to control such situations. Besides, they had the Back Up Squad watching the whole scene happening from a good plot – they could inform Kakashi or Shikamaru if anything unusual happened.

Taking a quick look around the not-so-green-anymore terrain that had holes everywhere and smoke coming from them, Tenten threw one of her last small explosions that wouldn't need to be used into the air and easily caught it, smiling proudly

"**Terrain clear!"** She yelled into the radio to all the police agents and backed off, sweat all over her slightly darker face because of the smoke the explosions caused.

"**Understood. Striking Squad, your time to act!"** It was Kakashi's turn to yell into his own radio, and two seconds later, Naruto and Lee were already running at full speed to the front door, their guns ready to attack, and listening to Sai's instructions about the way they should follow. Shikamaru, Neji and Gaara followed right behind by this order, their foot going for the exact same steps as their two partners that took the lead and clarified them the way to get to the front safely.

With the whole Striking Squad in one side only, some angles from the house weren't being watched anymore; so Kiba, Akamaru and Shino quickly made their way to take their partner's old posts and got their weapons ready, prepared to attack if whoever was in the house tried to escape through any different way.

"Lee!" Shikamaru ordered, and the whole Squad pointed their guns at the giant door.

"Got it!" And after realizing a deep breath and a loud energetic scream, the door was taken down with a couple of violent yet agile kicks. Lee quickly jumped away from the entrance to allow their comrades to fully point their weapons at the inside of the mysterious mansion.

"Shit! Back off, everyone!" Shikamaru yelled, but it was too late; a giant star-like weapon was pulled by a thin thread from the trees next to the entrance, and someone cursed loudly as some drips of blood fell to the stoned ground.

"Gaara!" Naruto cried out and quickly ran to his partner, who had fallen to his knees and kept his hand tightly around his deep injury on his right arm. Judging by the strength of the impact, it could have broken the red head's arm.

He cursed at the blonde's stupidity. "Out of h-here, Naruto!"

"NARUTO!" Shikamaru shouted when another thin thread was pulled; the blonde's heart stopped for a second, but his body reacted in time to throw Gaara's away. Naruto quickly rolled on the ground, the star-like weapon only scratching his left cheek.

"It's coming again!" Neji yelled when the weapon begun going back to the way it'd come from.

"I will not allow it!" Another youthful shout filled the airs, and Lee grabbed the furious weapon with his both hands, it's strength tearing off his palms' skin and putting the police's hands to blood. He cursed but still refused to let go, when in a flash a knife flew right to the invisible thread supporting the object, cutting it. Neji remained calm, in the same position he was when he threw the knife.

"Let it go now. It won't return to where it went!" The Hyuuga's voice demanded in a confident tone. Lee immediately said as he was told and, fair enough, the weapon simply fell on the ground, now tainted in a dark red colour.

Naruto clenched his jaw, a nerve was noticeable on his neck. "Fuck! Your hands, Lee! Don't ever try to do that again—"

"—Forget about that! We gotta move on!" Shikamaru ordered.

"You stay with Gaara and Lee, they are vulnerable at the moment. I and Naruto will be moving in right now." Naruto nodded when his thoughts were said out loud by his partner, his cerulean eyes still piercing Lee's and Gaara's injuries.

"But it's too dangerous!" Shikamaru objected, still supporting Neji.

"We can't let an opportunity like this pass by, and you know it." Neji nodded and stepped inside the house, Naruto still staring with an worried frown at their comrades who would be left behind.

"Naruto!" Neji called.

The blonde nodded and was about to run into the mansion, but a familiar and hurried voice made him stop his actions.

"_Get down!_ Inside traps are only disconnected if you insert the right code!" said male voice shouted, but there wasn't enough time for the two police agents to retreat—knives were about to fly from the ceiling and stab them everywhere, but loud shots were heard and the knives were knocked down by each bullet that flew from different angles.

Kiba Inuzuka blew his desert eagle and smirked(1). He bent down and caught one of the knives.

"Kunai knives, eh?" He said, examining the sharp blade. He then noticed the star-like weapon on the floor. "And shurikens. Looks like our friend is a fan of Japanese classic weapons."

"_Kiba!_ Shit, man!" Naruto said with a laugh and excited sounds, which were imitated by his best friend. "I swear, you're a life saver! I promise I won't kill you because you came here on your own, now!"

"Ya know how it works, blondie! Ah, the bliss! I knew you'd understand me! I couldn't lose another bet." Kankurou tsk'ed, appearing on the brunnete's right side and Temari on the left, who had her handgun placed above her shoulder. "Anyway, we're here to assist you. I left my post to Hinata because I couldn't just keep looking at this fucking mansion knowing you guys were here, so yeah."

"You go with them, genius. Gaara and Lee are in good hands." Temari reassured Shikamaru with a wink, placing her gun on her belt.

"How troublesome. Guess it can't be helped, ne?" Shikamaru said with a small smile and recharged his gun, then walked to Naruto and Neji. The three turned to the mansion's front door.

"Naruto-kun," Lee called and showed his comrade a weak thumbs up since it was so difficult for him to even move a finger and forced a smile when the blonde turned to him "Kick that drug dealer for me!"

Naruto grinned from ear to ear and showed him the same thumbs up, "It's a goddamn _promise_!"

"Get out of there quickly, or I'll be getting all of your beers!" Kiba shouted as he lifted Gaara from the ground in a princess-style to make a little fun of him, getting a lot of glares from the redhead. Kankurou simply supported Lee by his arm.

"We can't let that happen, now can we?" Naruto whispered to himself and then looked at his two comrades. Shikamaru smirked a little, a bit of sweat rolling down his forehead.

Neji shook his head, but a smile was present on his features. "Let's go, Naruto, Shikamaru." and with that, the three of them stepped inside the mansion.

* * *

"Let. Go." Gaara said for the millionth time to the brunette who was transporting him. Now that they had reached the ambulance zone, it was getting more ridiculous and embarrassing for the red head. Gaara no Subaku did not allow anyone to transport him—especially in the horrible princess style. He glared harder at the dog lover, because, well, he'd been through the part of sending him death threats. He remembers a pretty good one with the words '_your dog's intestines_' that made the idiot shiver a little, but he still laughed it off.

They were starting to get weird looks from everyone, and Gaara's eyes went wide—though he forgot about it when hearing his brother and sister along with Lee walking 'discretely' behind them and whispering and pointing at them. His eyebrow twitched at the words '_I was sure he wouldn't allow it!_' and a nerve popped on his forehead with a desperate '_I can't believe I lost again!_'. Lee just kept saying it was '_wonderfully friendly_'. It didn't make Gaara feel any better about the situation.

_You're so going to get it, you traitor._

"Aw, cheer up! Here I am, taking all this effort to take you safely to the ambulance, and you still want to kill me?"

"_Yes_." He simply answered. Kiba didn't look impressed at all.

"Eh, I thought so. I'm still proud of my—_gentlemeness._"

"That is not even a word. And shut up, you've got dog breath." Gaara answered. It was taking a lot not to kill the annoying Inuzuka. Not even _Naruto_ could be this annoying, and that was saying a lot.

"HEY! I SO DON'T HAVE DOG BREATH!" He yelled at the red head just when he was close to the ambulance. "And that's really inoriginal, by the way!"

"It's _unoriginal,_" Gaara corrected Kiba, and then covered his own nose to prove his point. "Stop yelling when you're so close to my face. It does stink."

"Sensible, aren't we? Typical from a princess, ha!"

Sakura and Ino looked up from their jobs to blink at the arguing police agents, giving them even weirder looks when noticing Kiba was, indeed, transporting Gaara no Subaku in princess style(2).

"I thought Kiba and Hinata were dating?" Ino dared to say out loud to her pink haired friend, who just slowly nodded in agreement, still blinking at what was happening in front of her.

"Hinata's gonna be heartbroken if Kiba turns into a gay guy."

Ino nodded in agreement, "Always acting manly and straight as an arrow... I always knew there was something about him that screamed homosexuality."

* * *

The three of them were back to back to each other, their breaths heavy, and their guns ready to shot if anything unusual happened again.

"What do you got?" Shikamaru muttered.

"S'clear. There was in one on the kitchen, office, living room or closet. And," Naruto paused to take a deep a breath, then let it out "Two broken fingers, and a few injuries on my knees. Not bad, eh?" He forced a small laugh.

"Same for me. The second room, two bathrooms, laundry room and the third room were clear. I think—I think my hand is broken. It's almost impossible for me to fire." Neji cursed.

"The rest of the rooms I checked were clear as well," Shikamaru coughed "I'd say I'm in the same situation as Neji. It's difficult for all of us to fire—but the possibilities for someone to be actually here are low. We still have upstairs to check, though, which means the bedrooms. From the size of this house and amount of rooms and decoration, I'd say there is more than one person living in here, but there's always the possibility that we're dealing with some typical psychopath that enjoys having a big ass house just because." He tsk'ed "I also checked some drawers, and as I expected, there are no personal information. No documents, no pictures—absolutely nothing." He threw his head back and cleaned off the sweat rolling off his forehead with the back of his hand. It was starting to get hot in there.

"So, what are we waiting for? Upstairs it is." Naruto whispered and patted his gun before cautiously walking up the stairs, Neji and Shikamaru right behind him, and always leaned on the wall, all of their senses absolutely concentrated on the slightest sound that could be done from the inside of the house.

Checking the corridor with a small mirror, Naruto nodded at his comrades and then stepped into it. Shikamaru and Neji did the same.

_Three bedrooms—perfect._ The genius thought and spoke to his comrades through fingers—with a lot of effort—and mouthed some words. He'd be checking the first one, Neji the middle one, and Naruto the last one.

As Naruto slowly walked to the last bedroom, his heart began pounding furiously into his chest. He didn't know what or why, since there were no signs, no sounds—absolutely nothing, but something was oddly off. His heart sounded like a giant tambour on his ears and his cerulean eyes were wide open.

He stepped closer.

And closer.

_And closer_—and with a kick, the room's door went down. He immediately pointed his gun at the inside of the mysterious room. He waited some seconds before entering the big place that was illuminated by the moonlight's rays.

It was a large yet simple room. A dark blue bed, a modern desk with a pile of—school books?—a TV plasma, a radio, more and more books, a CD collection… The blonde frowned. _A student? Just what the heck is going on?_

When he was sure that no one else was in the room, Naruto walked to the desk. He looked around one more time and placed his gun besides him so he could grab it easily and quickly if needed. Grabbing the book at the top of the pile, he studied the front before opening and taking a look at the first pages. No name was written anywhere, only exercises perfectly done—not like Naruto knew much about it, anyway, but it just seemed like that was the case.

The police looked through a few more pages before closing the book and placing it on the desk again, next to his gun. He proceeded to open the first drawer, and a grey folder was in there, along with some notebooks. Naruto took out the folder and went through it as well.

_Seems like this is where they save their tests, essays and all that boring stuff. And excellent ones at that. Holy shit. Sorry dude, but I'll be taking your perfect grades with me. This might be important information. _

And with that, he placed the folder on the book he left next to his gun. If he thought this was the drug dealer? No fucking way in hell. There was obviously more than one person living in this house—and he was sure Shikamaru had noticed that by now. No drug dealer that was a part of the biggest criminal group in the world could take such a perfect life. It was just impossible. Specially someone who was probably around Naruto's age – maybe one or two years younger – and still easily influenced. It was just impossible.

So, grabbing his gun and the documents he had found, the blonde walked out of the bedroom. He frowned.

Something was wrong.

Entering the dark room again and then stepping out of it, Naruto noticed the big change of temperature. His frowned deepened and he touched his forehead with his left hand, only then realizing just how much he had sweat simply by spending about five minutes inside that room.

"What the heck…" The blonde muttered to himself and started walking around the room and sensing the walls, until a certain plot was a lot hotter than the others. He felt more of that same plot but going closer and closer to the ceiling, until it eventually got to a point where it burned his skin.

"Above!" And with that, a loud crack just above that same room was heard; Naruto cursed and hurried out of there. "What the fuck! There are no fucking stair in here!" He desperately yelled.

_Think, Naruto, Think!_

_But there's no freaking time to think!_

_Then just act on instinct!_

The blonde immediately nodded in agreement with his inner self and began shooting at the corridor's wooden ceiling, his breath heavy. An amount of bullets flew like thunders until a piece of metal fell on the ground and allowed stairs to violently be thrown at the floor and offer Naruto the way to the burning place above the room he was just a minutes ago.

"Oi, Naruto! What do you think you're doing?!" Shikamaru shouted while running out the room to reach his blonde partner, Neji following.

"What the heck is this all about?"

"There's something—someone in there! In the attic!" He explained between breaths, pointing at the top of the stairs with his finger, "It's burning, I'm sure of it!" Naruto exclaimed and began climbing the stairs.

"Attic?—What the fuck? You can't just rush in like that, or whoever that is in there will most likely kill you!"

"Like I'd let them! I promised myself I'd get this goddamn villain to prison, and that's what I'm gonna do." And with that, the blonde climbed the rest of the stairs.

"Shikamaru, he might be right. You noticed how hot it is up here, right?" Neji asked and put his gun on his belt, getting ready to climb the stairs as well.

Shikamaru just sighed and nodded. "It's a drag, but there's a 55% possibility that the drug dealer might be in there. So, let's just get this over with." Neji nodded with a confident smile and began climbing the wooden stairs, but it was difficult—he couldn't use his broken hand, after all. He cursed. Count on Naruto to have the luck to only break a few fingers.

"It's hopeless, Neji! We'll only be a burden to Naruto when he comes down if we keep on trying to climb it. Plus, the bulletproof vests and guns are too heavy."

"Damn it!" Neji cursed and bit his lip, not resisting the urge to punch the fucking wooden stairs. _Why stairs? Why couldn't the rich villain have made a nice elevator?_

"_**Reinforcements.**_** We need reinforcements! And firefighters! Quick!"** Shikamaru yelled into the radio, looking at the top of the stairs. He bit his lip.

_Hang in there, Naruto. Help is on the way!_

* * *

_A room, there's a room!_ Naruto thought and ran to the closed door. Stupidly trying to open it with his hand, the blonde violently pulled it back when the door knob burned his skin. He heard Sakura's angry voice calling him an idiot in his mind.

He pointed his gun at the door and then took it down with a few kicks. His breath was heavy and his heart even heavier.

In the room, a dark haired man was turned to a desk full of pieces of technology, his back facing Naruto.

"Hands behind your head and behave well, you hear me? This is the police! Do as you're told or I'll fucking _shoot_ you!"

The man seemed to ignore Naruto and simply grabbed the third drawer from the desk.

"_Hands off!_ I fucking mean it!"

"I do not intend to run away." The guy simply said and pulled the drawer open, then lifted his hands and slowly placed them on the back of his head.

Then he slowly turned around, revealing a blank expression and black bangs covering his face. His pale face contrasted with the fire and made him look almost immortal. The pieces of technology began to burn. Naruto stared at the whole scene with his eyes wide opened, his gun still pointing at the man in front of him.

"_I'm guilty._"

* * *

"Where do _you_ think you're going?" A calm yet terrific voice echoed through the cave. Itachi Uchiha ignored it.

"It is none of your business." He answered in the same tone and was about to exit the dark cave, but his arms were quickly tied by Sasori's agile ropes. The raven didn't move.

"Itachi," the redhead said, his eyes closed. He assumed a tired, boring expression and easily handled the ropes he had his hands around of. "We know where you are going."

"Like we'd let you escape from here in a situation like this, hm!" Deidara spoke right after his partner, but in a much louder tone. Sasori glared at him.

Itachi said nothing, his back faced to his partners. Then he suddenly lifted his feet from the ground making the knife he had in there jump into the air, caught it easily with his mouth and cut the ropes. _Tch,_ _bunch of useless idiots._

"Hn." Was all he said and began, once again, walking to the exit. Deidara was about to shout at him, but Madara lifted his hand.

"Itachi. You are not being rational." Madara talked once again, closing his eyes as he blew some smoke into the air. He was leaning against the wall, relaxed and holding a cigarette between his fingers. The man's long, black hair looked even darker in that cave, just like his cruel eyes. "We all know you want to protect your precious little brother, so do you really think it would be a good idea to go out there with every police in the fucking town looking for us? I don't think he would like to find out that his dear older brother is one of _my_ drug dealers by visiting you in prison, now would he?"

Itachi growled loudly and threw his knife at Madara's direction that stopped right next to the man's left ear. Madara didn't move one centimeter as if expecting to happen and blew more smoke into the air.

"Don't you ever fucking dare talking about my brother." Itachi said in a low and blood thirsty tone. Sasori and Deidara watched the whole scene with amused smirks on their faces.

Madara chuckled. "Sensible, aren't we?" He said and his hand wrapped around the knife next to his ear. He took it off and observed the blade. "Here." The man said and threw it back at Itachi, who easily grabbed his returned weapon before it stabbed his belly.

"Hn."

"My luck is that you can't kill me, right? You need the money." Madara smirked.

"That's your luck." Itachi answered and calmly turned around, his jaw clenched. As much as he really hated to admit it, Madara was right. He couldn't leave at a moment like this. He had to wait until the next night, or maybe even more time. He mentally cursed at himself.

* * *

**1**: HNGGGG. By the way, a desert eagle is a shot gun. :P

**2:** Felt the need to join some humour to the story. And I gotta admit, imagining Kiba taking Gaara in princess style is cuter than I thought xD. Don't worry though, I doubt this'll be a pairing in this story. It all depends on you readers' thoughts and opinions.

Well, they've finally met. I wrote that Akatsuki scene originally in the middle of the the second chapter, but then cut it off and saved it somewhere else. So when I was re-reading this one, I thought it'd actually fit at the end as an introduction of the Akatsuki.

Thank you for reading, and please tell me what you thought!


	4. Truth

**A/N:** Hello, dear readers!... *sweatdrop* This chapter is extremely late, I know, I know, BUT! I have a valid excuse! It's called school and tests and specially _MATHS_—that, uh, counts as a valid excuse, right?—so yeah, I'm really sorry, but school this year is very important to me :P. Anyway, forgetting about school and back to the story; I personally enjoyed writing this chapter (especially because it's when our two boys will finally get to really know each other—well, sort of) so I really hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did :D

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I _highly_ doubt the series would be allowed on TV. ¬‿¬

Ladies & Gentlemen, here's the forth chapter of _Closer_!

* * *

When the first rays of light began to warm his tanned face and made the room lighter, the senses slowly returned to the tips of his fingers. Moving his lead a little to each way when the sun touched his eyelids, Naruto opened his cerulean eyes with some difficulty. He then rubbed them with his hands and stretched before slowly sitting up and finally looking around. He blinked twice and frowned.

"Morning, sleepyhead! It's about time, ne?" Ino commented as she entered the room with a soft smile and food on a small moving table. She stopped with the breakfast besides Naruto's bed.

"Ino? Where am I?" Naruto asked, his eyes staring at the food. Now that he thought about it, he felt really hungry.

The blonde girl lifted an eyebrow. "At the hospital, moron. Remember last night?" she asked, placing two toasts, a yoghurt and a cup filled with natural orange juice on the nightstand besides Naruto's bed. "You know, you caught the guy in the attic, but because you're an idiot, you didn't hurry down and the… laptops and other things exploded!" Ino sighed. "And because you're even a bigger idiot, you _had_ to protect the guy even though he's a criminal and of course you ended up being the one injured. Feel lucky that I'm the one giving you breakfast, because Sakura's really angry with you, Naruto," She smirked a little.

Naruto frowned and looked down at his lap, the memories coming back to his mind as he heard his blonde friend talking. His eyes suddenly went wide. "Oh, I remember now! Shit! I gotta go, Ino!" He shouted and got out of the hospital bed with a jump, looking around to find his shirt and ignoring the bandages he had around his torso. He flinched a little at the pain he felt on his back, though.

"Eh?! You're not going anywhere, Naruto! You're still recovering, I can't let you get out of the hospital like that,"

"What are you talkin' about? I feel great! I could even go out there and… built a zoo, or somethin'," he said and, because he couldn't find his shirt and jacket anywhere or whatever it was that he was wearing last night because it probably got ruined, Naruto grabbed the first shirt he saw and dressed it in a rush. Lucky him, it was a black one and said, 'I'm the girl of your dreams**(1)**'. He looked down at it and gave Ino a weird look.

"Sure you do. You got your back burned, Naruto, there's no way I'm letting you get out of here. Now go back to the bed or I'll have to call Sakura!" Ino threatened him. "And don't look at me like that, that shirt's not even mine," The girl answered, giving the same weird look at the piece of cloth. Somehow, she had a feeling that Kiba had something to do with it. Ino was really starting to doubt the dog lover's sexuality.

As bad as having Sakura shouting at him sounded, Naruto grabbed an orange jacket he found, dressed it and left it unzipped. Seeing as it was his favourite colour, someone must have left him clothes for him to dress today. Judging by the shirt, it _had_ to be Kiba the one responsible for such a task. _Oh, the bliss. _He turned around to face Ino, and then walked to her.

"Ino, I can't just stay here and let them deal with that guy!" Naruto said, feeling frustrated.

"It's not like they need you to deal with a single criminal, Naruto. They're more than capable to do that,"

"That's _not_ what I meant, you know," He said, looking at Ino and giving her his best puppy eyes.

Ino face palmed. "It's because of Ibiki, isn't it? Just let it go, Naruto. There's nothing you can do!"

"You're wrong," He whispered with a deep frown, looking down. "I can and will do something. I just—there's something different about this guy. I'm not sure of what it is, but..." He looked up at Ino "I can't let Ibiki hurt him before we're really sure if he's the criminal! Besides, I wanna know what happened last night after I passed out, or whatever,"

"Naruto," She paused to place her hands on the police's shoulders. "You're not being rational. We knew there was one of the Akatsuki members in there, and that guy was the only person in there. It's clear to me. Also, he claimed himself guilty, right? You told us before you fainted,"

"I know, but there are other things I gotta report! Like, um…" He thought hard for a moment, trying to remember. Then his eyes lit up. "Like, there was someone else living in there! I'm sure of it! I remember… seeing school stuff? Yeah, that was it. Come on, Ino, this is important, you gotta let me go!"

The blonde medic looked at the police for some seconds, as if doubting him, and then let out a deep sighed and her hands fell from his shoulders. "Guess it can't be helped, ne? Whatever. Go on blondie, run and enjoy your freedom while you can. But if Sakura asks, I'm saying you sneaked out. Someone's gotta punish you, after all,"

A huge grin grew on Naruto's features and he automatically gave Ino a tight hug. "Thanks, Ino! You're the best!—And that's fine by me, even Sakura-chan would have some pity when seeing me like this, I'm sure of it,"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Now let go, Naruto. You still stink from yesterday's fire," Ino said, though she was laughing a little. Naruto laughed along and did as he was told. "Aaaand I wouldn't count on that if I were you. I'm sure you won't escape a few punches," The girl said with a wink, which made Naruto sweat drop.

"Eh, you're probably right… Well, I'm off! Thanks again, I~N~O~!" He sang his friend's name as he ran to the room's door and waved.

"Naruto…" She sighed and face palmed. "You forgot your shoes, smartass,"

"Oh!" Naruto stopped and turned around, only then looking down at his feet and realizing the Winnie the Pooh socks he was wearing. He gave a nervous laugh.

Kiba was _so_ going to pay for that.

* * *

A punch flew into the air. And then a kick. And a punch. And then a spin attack, and then a kick again. Aaaaand again. They were followed by loud and strong "Ah's!" or "Kaa's!".

A nerve popped on Kiba's forehead. "OI, LEE!" He suddenly shouted, making the said police stop his training, or whatever it was that he was doing.

"Yes, Kiba-kun?" He innocently asked.

"Will you stop that?! We've been working and going everywhere for more than twenty four hours, and this is the first chance we get to rest! SO PLEASE, SHUT UP!" Everyone else who was either lying on the sofas, sitting on the chairs and resting their heads on the tables or even lying on the ground nodded in agreement or simply yawned.

"There is no time to rest, Kiba-kun! Every second I spend resting, is a second that could be spent training!" He sent another kick into the air. "I must defeat my rival! I, Lee Rock, won't let myself get injured on the next mission we have!"

Suddenly, a kunai knife was sent flying over the green police, who dodged it. A bit of sweat rolled down Lee's forehead when facing Tenten's angry expression.

"LEE!" Her eyes turned into fire and she grabbed a few more kunai knives. The other police screamed for help as Tenten approached him.

"Shikamaru, go stop her before she kills him," Neji said into the pillow, almost asleep.

"Can't," Shikamaru mumbled and then yawned. "Too troublesome,"

"Hinata?" Neji lazily called.

All that came from the dark haired girl who was fast asleep with her head against Kiba's shoulder was a soft sigh. Kiba leaned his head on Hinata's and pretended he was asleep, too, before Neji got the chance to ask him.

On the background, all they heard were Lee's whines and cries. Tenten was always grumpy when she was really sleepy.

Because everyone else was just too goddamn tired to do anything, Neji didn't bother to ask anyone else and got more comfortable on the sofa.

It was no surprise that they were this worn out; after all, yesterday's invents were terribly exhausting and they hadn't slept for more than a day since it was around ten am at the moment. After Naruto was able to get the guy out of there, there were a lot of other tasks to do since a part of the mansion had exploded and the rest burnt down. They called the firefighters, but it was useless; the mansion was too big and the fire was too strong. Nothing had lasted—not even a bit of information, except for the ones Shikamaru, Neji and Naruto were able to get.

Once Lee was dramatically and silently crying, Tenten lazily returned to her place next to Neji and got comfortable against his back. He smiled and let out a content sigh. And everyone else was thinking the same: _Finally… so peaceful and quiet…_

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MOOOOORNING, EVERYOOOONE!" A loud greeting filled the airs—Naruto's greeting filled the airs. Naruto, the loudest person in the whole goddamn world.

But because everyone was just too tired, they didn't even look up at the blonde—except for Kiba, whose eyes were red with anger.

"Nice shirt, dumbass,"

"Shup up, Kiba! You're the worst!" He yelled. Again.

A nerve popped on his forehead, and Naruto blinked twice at his friend's reaction, getting a little scared. "Uh… Kiba? Ya alright there, buddy? You look like, ya know, like ya want to kill me or somethin'," Naruto laughed a little. He then looked at everyone else in the room, frowning at the sight; _for god's sake, they all look like corpses! _

"What's wrong with y'all? Come on people, wake up! We've got work to do! Waaaaake uuuuuup!" He kept whining and calling while going around the room and shaking each person's shoulders.

"Someone please, _please_ make him shut the fuck up," Kankuro suddenly said in a bloodthirsty tone. When Naruto was about to shake Gaara's shoulder, who was next to Kankuro, the redhead grabbed the annoying blonde's arm and sent him a death glare. Naruto gulped.

"Shut up and let us rest in peace, or I swear I'll push all the ramen in the world up your ass,"

"B-But that would be wasting ramen!" He shouted, terrified at the idea.

"Exactly," Gaara glared harder, then roughly let go of his arm.

A shiver ran through Naruto's spine and he slowly walked away from Gaara. Once he was next to the door, he poked out his tongue. "Whatever! I'll just go and ask my dad! SEE, YA!" He shouted and then ran out the room before anything sharp could be thrown at him. Gaara sighed in annoyance.

"What a child," Neji scolded the blonde and turned around on the sofa, now face to face to Tenten, who rested her head on her boyfriend's chest.

"I guess so," Temari commented, but then smiled a little. "But everyone needs a child to light up the mood," Silently, everyone else agreed with the blonde girl.

"But, uh…" Lee dared to speak, poking his head from behind the sofa where Kiba and Hinata were lying, as if using it as a shield in case Tenten decided to try and kill him again. "Isn't there going to be a big fight when Naruto finds out that Ibiki's already skipping to the torturing part?" He said in almost a whisper, frowning in concern now that he really thought about it.

Everyone else suddenly realized what their partner was trying to say. However, they all stayed still; it was useless to get in a fight between Naruto, Ibiki and Minato. Besides, they still had forty five minutes to rest. Forty five minutes until the torturing began. Until total chaos ruled Shageki no Prison.

* * *

"This is insane," Naruto cursed while walking back and forth in his father's office. "This is insane, dad! He's like, the same age as me!"

Minato sighed for the millionth time and got to his feet, stomping his two hands on the desk. "Naruto, crimes don't choose ages. You should know that,"

"But that's not the thing! It's just—if you consider him guilty and he's already getting arrested, then why the heck should we torture him, huh?" Naruto yelled at his dad, who clenched his jaw. "Is it because it's _fun_, like Ibiki fucking thinks?"

"You have no right to talk like that about Ibiki, Naruto," Minato glared at his son. "And watch the way you talk to your own father,"

"I don't give a fuck about Ibiki! He could die for all that I care!"

"Naruto!" Minato suddenly yelled, making Naruto clench his fists and stay quiet. "He's a part of the Akatsuki. That means he _knows_ more about the Akatsuki, and we need to know everything about the Akatsuki," Minato tried to remain calm, but it was getting quite difficult.

"I don't think he's a part of the Akatsuki," Naruto said in a low tone, staring at the huge windows that were facing his father's back. It was raining way too much out there. Naruto frowned when a flash torn out the dark skies and a loud sound was heard two seconds after, making his heart beat faster.

"Nothing you can say can change my mind, Naruto," Minato said, shaking his head in disapproval. "He _said_ he was guilty. There are proofs that he _is_ guilty. He's the one and _you _know it!"

"Even if he is, there's no need to torture him!" Naruto shouted again, feelings angry tears forming in his eyes. Another thunder filled the room.

"DON'T YOU GET IT?" Minato yelled, stomping his both hands on the desk once again. A nerve was visible on his neck. "We need all the information we can get to find out who killed your _mother_! My _wife_! To _avenge_ her!" He kept desperately shouting, frustration taking over his voice. His breath was heavy.

Naruto cursed and punched the desk, facing his dad. "Mom would never want us to avenge her like this! _We'll be just as bad as the ones who killed her_—"

Naruto was cut off when his father slapped him. Hard.

Another thunder filled the airs, as if someone was begging for the whole scene to stop.

Naruto kept his head turned to the side Minato slapped him. Tears began rolling down his cheeks.

"Get out, Naruto," Minato said, his voice trembling, sounding weak yet angry. Calm yet regretful.

Naruto said nothing and slowly turned to the door, more tears escaping from his cerulean eyes as he walked to the exit. He grabbed the doorknob and before walking out, said in almost a whisper, though it was loud enough for his father to hear.

"You didn't inherit mom's will," was all he said, his back still facing Minato.

He then walked out, and Obito and Kakashi were at each side of the door. Naruto didn't even look at them and just walked away, his fringe covering his eyes.

"Naruto," Obito sadly said and tried to reach him, the desire of comforting the kid being stronger than him. Kakashi stopped his friend from doing so.

"Let him be, Obito. It's between him and his father," the silver haired man sad with a small nod. His eyes then followed Naruto, secretly having the same desire as Obito.

The dark haired male sighed and stepped back, then crossed his arms over his chest with a sad smile. "Kushina was just like him, wasn't she?**(2)**"

"Yes," Kakashi said in a whisper, seeing the read head woman's personality in the young police. "It's been long since everyone here had pure hearts. But, I have a feeling Naruto will be able to turn Shageki no Prison to what once it was a long time ago,"

Obito nodded in agreement, thinking back at the argument between father and son. It wasn't like him and Kakashi were spying—he was pretty sure the whole prison had heard it, so it didn't really count as spying, right?

Inside the office, Minato cried into his hands. The thunders had stopped, and only rain violently stomping anywhere it fell was heard out there. The man opened the second drawer from his desk and took the single frame that was in there. He closed it and, looking at the redhead woman present in the picture with a genuine smile, he weakly returned the smile to his wife.

"Being a dad and a mom at the same time isn't easy, Kushina," He whispered to himself. "Why… _Why_ did you have to leave us?..."

* * *

When seeing the pale guy with raven hair and an empty expression tied up in front of him ready to take some hits, Ibiki smirked. Looking at him from outside the room was Shikamaru, who just sighed in disapproval and grabbed his notebook. It really was a drag, but thanks to his great talent at analyzing situations, he was the one to note down the guy's reactions and everything he said. If he liked doing it? No freaking way. Ibiki and his Squad were animals when it came to torturing – and it would be especially difficult this time due to the huge argument he knew Naruto had had with his father. If he had to be honest with himself, he would have to admit that Naruto's way of thinking sounded better than this, but what was a guy to do? Shikamaru was simply doing his job, and he wasn't like Naruto—he wasn't the type to let out all of his opinions without even thinking twice and making sure everyone in the goddamn world heard it. It was just too much of a drag, and something only Naruto could do.

Shikamaru looked down at his watch. _Three minutes_.

His dark eyes stopped to study the criminal's expression. The guy wasn't showing a single bit of fear, of sadness, of panic—absolutely _nothing_, which wasn't normal for someone who was going to be tortured in the next three minutes. He wasn't calm or agitated, anxious or relaxed. He almost looked… dead. And at that moment, imagining him feeling any pain due to the torturing seemed impossible. His eyes were glued to the ground, and he ignored all of Ibiki's threats and scary tones.

Shikamaru frowned in confusion and noted his thoughts down on his notebook. He was beginning to really concentrate on his mission, when a small '_psshht!_' reached his ears.

He lifted an eyebrow and looked around. When he found absolutely nothing, Shikamaru returned to his notebook. He kept writing until another '_psshht_' was heard and turned his head to each side.

"Oi, oi! S'me, Shika! Come on, open the door," A familiar voice could be heard from behind the door that was on Shikamaru's left side, a few meters away from him. The lazy genius stared at the door for some seconds, his eyes wide—that was the emergency's way exit door! How he had gotten there through the forth office, that he didn't know, but that way wasn't to be used in, well, in situations that weren't an emergency! And only one person could be stupid enough to do something like that…

"…Naruto?" He cautiously whispered back at the door after checking if anyone was watching him, feeling like an idiot.

"Well, duh! Open the door!" Naruto whispered back. Loudly.

Shikamaru sighed. This couldn't be good. "Naruto, you know I can't. That's the emergency way's exit door, moron," He tried to argue, but this was Naruto Uzumaki's stubborn word against Shikamaru Nara's lazy ass one.

"Come on, Shika," He pleaded, sounding desperate. "I gotta check for myself! I gotta stop it!" Naruto tried again and waited for the other's reply. He sighed in frustration when it never came. "You know I'll just knock the door down if you don't open it, right?"

That caught Shikamaru's attention. Imagining Naruto knocking down the door and coming out in his glorious stupidity wasn't a good idea—and sadly, he knew the blonde idiot wasn't kidding about doing it.

"This is so troublesome," He said, feeling defeated. He sighed and walked to the door. "Alright, Naruto. But with one condition,"

"Hell yeah!" Naruto said. "I knew you wouldn't let me down! Sure thing, Shika! Anything you want. You're the boss," the blonde joked.

Shikamaru sighed once again and shook his head. "You can't interrupt the session. Or distract me. Or whine, or beat Ibiki, or—"

"I got it, I got it!"

"—OR say I was the one who opened the door," Shikamaru glared at the door when a silence followed his threat, then smirked. Maybe that was jackmate—

"—Oh, okay. That makes, uh…" He paused. "…Only two things I'll have to deal with later. Alright, done, done! Now open the door,"

"Hang on a minute," Shikamaru objected, an eyebrow lifted and feeling suspicious. "What's the other thing you'll have to deal with later?"

"Oh, just Sakura-chan. I sneaked out of the hospital," He shrugged and simply answered like it was something anyone would have normally done.

"…Right," Shikamaru said and got his bored usual expression on his face. _Nothing new,_ he thought. With one last sigh, Shikamaru finally opened the goddamn door.

"You're the best, Shika!" Naruto said as he walked out, lightly punching his friend's arm.

"Yeah, yeah," He said, bored. "Now don't distract me,"

"Okay, okay," Naruto agreed, and his easygoing attitude automatically faded away when they walked to the corridor's front that was one floor above the torturing room – that was where they would be seeing the whole terrible show from. Glaring darkly at Ibiki, Naruto crossed his arms above his chest and clenched his fists.

He just really fucking hoped he could keep his promise to Shikamaru.

His cerulean eyes then searched for the raven guy until they found him and stopped to study how he was reacting to the whole thing. Naruto frowned in confusion, a feeling of panic growing in his chest. They had already begun.

"Fucking shit, Shika," Naruto breathed. "He… He looks dead! What did Ibiki do to him? Huh?!" He said, grabbing his friend's uniform collar.

"Calm down, Naruto! They started some seconds ago, dumbass," Shikamaru said and slapped the other's hand away. He sighed when realizing Naruto's reaction to the whole thing and shook his head, then turned back to the room where the criminal was being hit hard on his bare back with an iron stick, Ibiki's questions and threats echoing through the whole room without being answered. "The guy's been like that before they even started," He paused, frowning and writing down what was happening. "It's unbelievable. He hasn't shown any emotion until now," He felt Naruto shiver violently beside him when a loud scream of pain tore the air, but didn't comment; the blonde had always been sensible to torturing scenes, though that was something the Uzumaki refused to admit. He always felt that way towards criminals—he obviously didn't pity them, the opposite actually, but seeing a police torturing someone who was arrested for using violence as a solution seemed ridiculous. "Any emotion but pain," Shikamaru finished his sentence in a mutter. Naruto gulped.

Breathing hard and letting out painful sounds, the criminal still refused to answer to a single thing. Ibiki was yelling at his face and demanding answers while slightly touching on his feet with the iron stick as if showing him the next part of his body that would suffer if he didn't do as he was told. Ibiki showed a hand sign to Kotetsu and Izumo, who were in the room with him, and they walked to the raven guy, untied his arms and got him lied on the stone, holding his arms. So, asking one last time and not getting an answer again, the cruel police angrily hit the guy's feet who, once again, let out a painful scream.

Naruto held his breath for a few seconds, as if refusing to share the same air as Ibiki. Sadly, his cerulean eyes wouldn't leave the scene happening in front of him.

* * *

Forty minutes later, and after what he had just seen, Naruto was scared of even moving his own hand as if it'd hurt to do such thing. Staring at the raven that was curled up in a ball and had injuries everywhere, he couldn't take it anymore—so when Ibiki was ready to hit him one more time, his sixth instinct took over his body and mind.

"Fucking stop it!" A violent yell was heard and Naruto began running down the stairs.

"Naruto! Come back here, now!" Shikamaru called after the blonde, and when he unsurprisingly didn't stop, he had to run down the stairs and grab Naruto's arm before he got the chance to storm in the room and interrupt the whole session.

"Let me go!" Naruto yelled, sending his friend a furious glare.

"No way! You're getting out of here, now! I—"

"—It's okay, Naara," Ibiki's dark voice interrupted their argument. They both looked at the inside of the room, surprise showing on one's face, and anger on the other's. With a smirk on his features, Ibiki slowly turned around to face the furious blonde. "I was planning on inviting him inside, anyway,"

Naruto saw red. "I don't need an invitation to your freak show!" He shouted and received a punch on the arm from Shikamaru.

"Oh?" Ibiki smirked once again. "Is that you refusing an opportunity to _stop_ me, like you wanted?" He unashamedly mocked the blonde police, an eyebrow lifted.

Naruto clenched his jaw.

"What if…" Ibiki's voice sounded darker. Promising. "…I have some information about who _killed_ your beloved mother?"

Naruto felt his heart getting heavy on his chest. Before he had the chance to answer, Shikamaru stopped him.

"That's not possible." Shikamaru objected, glaring at the scarred man. "We heard the same as you heard. Now you're just playing with him," He glared harder, receiving an unimpressed smirk from Ibiki.

"Now, now, Nara," He paused to look at Naruto, whose eyes were wide and a bit of sweat rolled down his forehead. "Let the _kid _choose,"

At hearing that, Naruto raised his eyes from the ground and stared at the huge man who was just a few meters away from him. Because thinking wasn't his fort and he'd rather act on instinct, the Uzumaki began walking forward. Shikamaru stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Naruto," He called, but the blonde didn't look at him. "Don't,"

"It's alright, Shika. I'm not that weak," Naruto answered in a low tone and walked into the torturing room. Smirking one last time, Ibiki closed the glass door as soon as Naruto walked in.

"This is all so troublesome," Shikamaru muttered to himself and hurried up the stairs.

He had to call Obito. Kakashi. Kiba. _Anyone._

Things were going to get ugly.

* * *

Grabbing the criminal by each arm, were Kotetsu and Izumo, staring at Ibiki with pure confusion. The raven guy was on his knees, and refused to look at anyone in the eye. He kept his head down, the dark fringe covering his forehead and eyes.

Naruto stared at him, not knowing what to do or feel. This didn't go unnoticed by Ibiki, who began walking in circles around the lost blonde police. Naruto followed him with his eyes, a dark glare always present on them.

"Tell me, Naruto," Ibiki began "How would you react if I told you that this guy," Kotetsu roughly lifted the criminal's head by his hair "Knew who killed… your mother?"

Naruto clenched his jaw but didn't say a thing.

"Don't you want to avenge your very own mother, of your very own blood? Don't you want to kill the one who caused so much pain to your father?" Ibiki slowly said every poisoned word into Naruto's ear.

His breath was starting to become uneven as every moment of pain that he's experienced due to his mother's death flashed through his mind. Every argument he's had with his father and every tear he's cried.

So, looking at the criminal in front of him, he was no longer thinking straight. He let himself walk to the raven guy and let Ibiki position his trembling arm to punch him.

"All that anger and sadness… let it all out on the ones that are to blame. It's not fair that you have to suffer because of what he," Ibiki pointed at the criminal "Did, is it?" Ibiki kept feeding the blonde's anger, wanting to change his mind. Wanting to show him what justice really was. Wanting to show him how good it felt to avenge the ones you love.

As an angry tear fell from Naruto's eyes, he was more than ready to hit the criminal—but a loud sound of glass breaking and a yell was heard, and the blonde seemed to wake up from an illusion. Quickly turning around, he saw the whole gang – Obito and Kakashi at the front – sweating and breathing with difficulty. They all stared at the injured guy with horror, which confused Naruto. They were used to this and they knew it'd happen, so what was the meaning of this? What was happening?

Looking between Ibiki and Naruto, Obito just _knew_ what had happened. "Ibiki!" He suddenly yelled and walked to the scarred man who glared darkly at him, receiving an even darker glare as an answer.

"Obito," Kakashi calmly said, which made the other curse and step back.

"I…" Naruto paused. "What the heck… is going on?"

"That guy," Shikamaru said and he stepped forward, pointing at the criminal. "Is innocent. He's the real drug dealer's younger brother, and he's got absolutely nothing to do with the case. Sasuke Uchiha, a top student and Itachi Uchiha's younger brother, is totally innocent. Itachi let himself get caught just a few minutes ago – as soon as he knew his brother was the one being arrested," Shikamaru glared darkly at Ibiki "And tortured,"

"T-That's…" Naruto difficulty spoke, his arms trembling. "That's not possible…" He said and dared to look at Sasuke Uchiha, whose eyes were now full of sadness and uselessness. Feeling his heart pounding against his tanned chest, Naruto thought back at what he was about to do just some seconds ago.

So, clenching his fist once again, he was ready to punch him.

Quickly turning around, his fist found the way to Ibiki's face.

Naruto made sure to break at least three of his teeth.

* * *

**1**: So super sexy. Sorry, I just had to xD.

**2**: Obito and Kakashi aren't the same age as Minato; they just know Kushina because she used to be with Minato when they were taught by Minato.

Okay, so the forth chapter is FINALLY done. Phew. It's 7pm, I have a maths test tomorrow and I haven't studied anything. PLEASE PRAY FOR ME. By leaving reviews. Ahem.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it!


	5. Pity

**A/N:** Yo, you awesome readers! First of all, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has reviewed, followed and favourited this story – you guys have made me really happy. It makes me want to keep on writing and uploading my stuff here. Talkin' about uploading, I'm working on a one-shot NaruSasu story (it's a shounen ai) called "Let it all out", so feel free to take a look when it's done! I know this update is late, but I got addicted to playing The Legend of Zelda – Skyward Sword (I'M ALREADY ON THE FINAL BOSS! AHHH! *cough* guess that's why I failed that math test *cough*)

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishi-sensei, the biggest troll ever. M'still recovering from that last discovery about the reason of The Uchiha Clan being a cursed Clan. Soooo not fair. ╥_╥

Ladies & Gentlemen, the fifth chapter of _Closer!_

* * *

**One month later**

Sitting around a huge, round table in a room that was only illuminated by a few candles, were the representatives of each district that were part of Shageki's community, ready to start the reunion that was going to decide Sasuke Uchiha's future and talk about the Prison's failure.

After two minutes of silence, Minato got to his feet, his both arms at each side of his body. He cleared his throat and opened his eyes to look around the table at each representative. Kakashi and Obito were by his side – they were always the chosen ones to be his bodyguards. Naruto always begged an awful lot to go along his father as his bodyguard, but he wasn't old or experienced enough. As much as Minato trusted his son, Naruto would just burst out his thoughts whenever he didn't agree with something, and bodyguards weren't allowed to express their opinions during the meeting. However, due to their last argument, the young police hadn't looked at his father even once.

Minato seemed to wake up from his thoughts when Kakashi cleared his throat.

"I thank all for you for being present today in this important gathering. As planned, we'll be deciding Sasuke Uchiha's, Itachi Uchiha's – the criminal who was a part of the Akatsuki – younger brother's situation and the failure that has occurred within this Prison," Minato bowed and all of the representatives nodded. The blonde man sat on his chair again and let out a deep breath. Obito, who was on his left side, discretely looked at Kakashi with a worried frown, showing how insecure he was about the whole thing. Kakashi nodded at his friend as if promising that it'd be just fine – Minato was greatly respected by every representative of every Prison thanks to his precision, his perfect decisions and his efficiency. Besides, he and his wife had been one of the best teams ever. This was the first mistake Shageki had ever done since Minato took the lead – the first mistake Shageki did in eighteen years. Minato Namikaze was a genius with a pure heart that only appeared once in a century**(1)**.

"Like you already know, Sasuke Uchiha claimed himself guilty and was tortured so we could get information, but he didn't say a single word. Then, Itachi Uchiha proved his younger brother's innocence. We've made exams to Sasuke Uchiha, studied his situation at university and his life style, and he's totally innocent. It is our obligation to free him. However," Minato paused and let out a sigh, frowning "His house got burnt down, and the poor guy has absolutely nothing left. Even though he's not underage, Shageki sees as its obligation to assure that Sasuke Uchiha has a place to stay and can pay his studies in order to keep being a top student. We decided that we should ask for a especial break for him now that the exams are coming so he can recover both emotionally and physically," Minato finished his speech and looked around the table one more time before sitting. "Does anyone disagree with the decisions that we have taken? If so, I would be more than glad to listen to your opinions and suggestions,"

Asuma Sarutobi**(2)**,Shageki's second district's leader, got to his feet and gave Minato a reassuring nod. He assumed a calm position, cigarette in mouth and kept his hands inside his pockets. Asuma was a great friend of Kushina, and he automatically formed bonds with Minato when they were kids and gave him all his strength through the rough year of Kushina's death. He was also the former teacher of Ino, Shikamaru and Choji, and they all shared a strong bond and often got together to stop by their favourite barbecue restaurant. Sometimes, they would even invite the whole gang.

"I agree and admire the decisions you have taken, but there's somethin' escapin' me," He paused "What _home_ are you planning to give to Sasuke Uchiha?"

"He's got a room in an apartment near the university he's studying in, but because of the break we're giving him, it's impossible for him to stay there. So we'll be offering a room in another apartment,"

"Seems good to me—"

"—You men have no consideration, now do you?" Kurenai Yuhi, former teacher of Kiba, Hinata and Shino, first district's leader and Kushina's best friend interrupted her husband with an eyebrow lifted and got to her feet. "The poor boy's in a weak psychological condition, it would be the same as kill him if we put him living all alone," The red eyed woman finished her sentence and glanced at Minato, who seemed surprised at the logical discovery—just like Asuma, who gave a nervous laugh.

"Kurenai's right," Anko Mitarashi, the third district's leader, entered the argument and got to her feet as well, smirking when noticing the familiar scene of boys being taken down by the girls. Yamato**(3)**, her bodyguard, sweat dropped. It was something they used to do when they were kids – the classic _'Who's stronger, boys or girls?' _argument – and specially because of Kushina's insane strength, the boys would mostly lose every time. "I say he needs company so he won't feel alone. Someone…" Anko stopped and scratched her chin with her left hand as if deep in thought. "Someone with a strong spirit. I wonder—"

"Oi! That's MY hand your knee's stepping!"

"Well excuse me! I just wanna go first, blame him for bringing his stupid dog!"

"The _stupid dog_ needs to go first so he can lead the way, smartass!"

"You guys are so troublesome,"

Everyone in the room looked up at an air duct in the ceiling, where the familiar voices and a few dog yelps were coming from. Obito and Kakashi's eyes were wild – though Obito just felt like exploding into laugher, because seriously, this meeting was starting to get boring – and Minato was about to have a heart attack. Asuma sighed and face palmed; he had noticed them before, but had silently hoped that they would be at least a bit careful. _Eh, maybe I was asking too much. That little group is naturally a troublemaker machine._

Suddenly, nothing could be heard from the air duct.

"…Y'think they heard us?"

"Of course they did, Naruto! You and Kiba are way too loud!"

"Hey, he started—OW! WATCH IT, NARU—WOAAH!"

With loud _tuds!_ and lots of yelling, the duct broke and a brunette fell right on the center of the huge table. Then another one with a ponytail, and finally a loud blonde one fell on top of the other two just like the final cheer on a cake. Akamaru fell perfectly on the floor.

Everyone stared at the moaning group for some seconds with surprise written on their faces - except for Minato, whose eyebrow was twitching. "Naruto. Kiba. Shikamaru," He said in a low voice, making the three policemen gulp. "May I ask what are you doing here, and why were you in the air duct?"

"Boss! Naruto made us—" Kiba began to excuse himself with the truth, but Shikamaru covered his mouth.

Naruto scratched the back of his head and gave a nervous laugh. "W-Well, you see, dad, err…" He began and his cerulean eyes stopped on Obito to look for a bit of support, since the older policemen always helped him getting out of trouble-but Obito didn't even seem to notice, covering his mouth and looking as red as a tomato, trying to hold on his laughter as best as he could. _What a traitor!_

He then looked at Kurenai—_an easy victim! _And with that, he pulled out his best puppy eyes.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Anko sighed. "You haven't changed at all, eh?" She smirked over at Minato. "I'm betting you're getting a huge punish—"

"—Wait," Kurenai interrupted the snake girl, who sighed in annoyance.

Naruto's eyes sparkled.

"We could use him,"

"Eh?" His sparkling eyes faded.

"Use… him?" Anko tilted her head a little to the side and blinked at the red eyed woman. "Oh, I get it!" She smirked. "What do ya think, Asuma?"

Naruto kept looking around at each of the representatives, not understanding a single thing. And then Kiba punched his arm. "Get off, your fat ass is killing us here!" Naruto looked down at his two friends. Shikamaru sure looked dead. Wow.

Asuma, who had gotten distracted with the little group on the table, frowned at the idea. He then looked at Minato. "It's up to you, Namikaze,"

Minato opened his mouth to argue, but then closed it. He did it again, and then frowned while looking at his terribly confused son. He looked at his left to ask for Obito's opinion, but the dark haired police simply fell on the ground from laughter at the scene before him.

"Obito, you traitor!" Naruto yelled and his eyes turned into fire. He finally got off his two desperate friends to jump on the laughing Obito.

Minato sweat dropped and looked over at Kakashi. The silver head man nodded; he truly believed that if a human being needed the comfort in order to keep on living, Naruto was just the kind of person they needed – a person with a warm and genuine soul.

Minato silently agreed with his body guard.

"Alright," the blonde man said, and got to his feet again. "Naruto will be—"

"Minato," Anko interrupted, and she was pointing at Naruto, who kept punching a hysterical Obito and telling him to shut up. "I don't think Naruto's responsible enough to do such a task,"

"My son is responsible when it comes to others. He's the right person to offer Sasuke Uchiha a room at his apartment for two months, which is the time we're giving him as a break," He paused to look at Naruto, who was now paying deep attention to the conversation and staring at his father. "I believe in him,"

"Perhaps this is a bad idea," Asuma said. "It wouldn't be fair to put such a burden on Naruto's shoulders,"

Kurenai sighed. "I agree. It's not a good idea after all. Naruto's got a job, his own house and his own life. It wouldn't be fair,"

Anko nodded in agreement, her arms crossed over her chest.

Minato let out a deep breath and sat back on his chair. "You're right," He said. Now that he really thought about it, that idea did sound like some kind of madness—to put the brother of a criminal in his son's house. As much as he wanted to help the lost boy, he couldn't ruin Naruto's life for such a purpose.

"Let's move to other options—"

"—I'll do it," Naruto suddenly said in a serious tone. He was now on his feet.

Shikamaru sighed. He just knew this would happen.

Anko let out an impatient breath. "Naruto, this isn't some charity work. It's important stuff. You can't just want to take in an Akatsuki's member's younger brother because you pity them,"

"It's not for pity," The blonde objected. Anko lifted a challenging eyebrow. "It's true that I feel sorry for him, but I also feel guilty for the situation he's in," He looked at Minato. "I _want_ to help him,"

Minato closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "Naruto," He paused, and opened his eyes. "Do you have any idea of how much your life will change if that happens?"

"Nope," He answered in all honesty. Asuma face palmed.

Minato couldn't help but smile a little. Acting on instinct has always been his weakest yet strongest characteristic.

"Come on, boss," Obito took this opportunity to step in the conversation. "Let the kid do it. We know he can, right?"

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered, and Obito put a friendly arm around his shoulders.

"Minato, you do realize that this is not a mission under the council's orders, right? To be an official approved mission, everyone needs to agree. And I don't," Naruto glared. "I won't risk having the whole organization failing because of his. Which means," She pointed at Naruto. "That this task is all of his responsibility and no one else's. It's up to him and only him,"

Naruto tch'ed and crossed his arms over his chest. _What a snake!_ "I wasn't expecting your _approval_, anyway. If you were trying to scare me, then you failed! I'm still going for it, ya know,"

Anko smirked. "Stubborn as ever, eh?"

"You bet,"

"Minato? How's it gonna be?" Kurenai cut in.

He looked over at Naruto, who had the ultimate begging expression on his face. He had made a mistake the first time—he hadn't listened to his very own son. But Minato Namikaze was intelligent, and making the same mistake twice was something that rarely happened in his lifetime. So, with the thought of having to believe his son in mind, he finally spoke.

"I entrust this unofficial case to Naruto Uzumaki and Naruto Uzumaki only,"

* * *

_Room 127… Room 128…_

Naruto kept walking through the hospital corridor and looking up at each room's door, where the the numbers were. It had been two days since the reunion, and now he was finally ready to take Sasuke Uchiha to his apartment. He had been in the hospital for more than a month and his injuries didn't need assistance anymore, just someone who'd clean them and bandage them. Even Naruto could do that, right?—Right, but only after being taught by Sakura, who punched him for sneaking out of the hospital. Perhaps Naruto was too optimistic when he thought that his pinkette friend had forgotten about it.

If he had to be honest with himself, Naruto was nervous. He had talked to Sasuke – well, not really because the guy only nodded a few times so it didn't count as a dialogue – and Naruto could swear that he wasn't happy at all about the whole situation, which kind of upset him. Come on, he was being nice and all, offering him a room!

_Room 137… 138… Ah, here it is! Room 139!_

Without hesitating, Naruto opened the door. He spotted his pink haired friend in there, placing Sasuke's breakfast on the small table that was next to his bed. Sure enough, he was still asleep. It was only seven in the morning, after all.

"Wow, Naruto! You're not late!" Sakura clapped a little, acting surprised.

Naruto placed his hand over his heart. "That hurt, Sakura-chan! I can be responsible, ya know," He grinned.

"Oh? I wonder," She said and smirked a little, then looked over at the sleeping Sasuke**(4)**. "So you're here to adopt him and take him home, huh?"

Naruto made a face. "Stop saying that he's my pet, or whatever. That's just plain creepy," His eyes stopped on the raven, too.

Sakura giggled. "Ne ne, Naruto. I'm kind of mad that you're taking him away, you know. It's not every day that you have to take care of such a handsome guy,"

"Eh? I just hope you haven't molested him in his sleep, or somethin',"

Sakura didn't answer or deny his joke. That was when Naruto's laugher faded and he looked at the medic with huge eyes.

"S-Sakura-chan! You didn't molest him, right? Right?!" He asked, shaking his friend's shoulders.

"Who knows?" She simply answered, giving her best innocent smile.

"Now you're creeping me out!"

She laughed out loud and slapped Naruto's hands away. "I'm obviously joking, Naruto. I'd never do that, you know," She stuck out her tongue.

Naruto glared playfully. "Somehow I doubt that. Anyway—"

A low sound interrupted the blonde. He looked over at the man lying on the hospital bed, where the sound had came from, and blinked when he finally woke up. His dark eyes looked around at the room and he opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it. He cleared his throat a little and sat up, his eyes stopping on Naruto.

The police grinned and waved a little.

Sakura chuckled. "See what you did, Naruto? You woke Sasuke up!"

Naruto glared a little at his cheerful friend, then his gaze returned to the raven. "Sorry, Sasuke. Guess I was too loud, ne?"

The raven didn't answer right away. He frowned a little at the whole situation—he did only just wake up, after all.

"I don't mind. I've been awake for a while, actually." He said with a blank expression and looked over at the food on his bedside table. The blonde _was_ too loud, though. He frowned a little in annoyance.

At hearing that, Sakura's jaw fell to the ground. "Y-you were awake?" She kept asking and her eyebrows twitching while Naruto just exploded into laugher.

"You'll be lucky if he doesn't send you to a cage, ya know!" Naruto joked, but then the whole room fell quiet. He blinked when feeling Sakura's heavy glare on him, only then realizing what he said.

"Eh… poor choice of words, I guess? Sorry, I don't really think before talking," He said with a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of his head, which was something he normally did when feeling nervous.

Sakura sighed. "We noticed, Naruto. It's alright, though. Right, Sasuke?" She smiled softly at the said man.

Sasuke ignored her question and drank a little from his water bottle. Naruto mentally cursed himself.

"Well, anyway. Naruto's here to pick you up, Sasuke," She said and walked to the door. "I'll go get your clothes while Naruto helps you getting up, alright? You guys gotta start knowing each other if you're spending two months in the same house, after all!" She said with a soft smile and then walked away, closing the door behind her.

"Seems like an angel, doesn't she?" Naruto said with an eyebrow lifted, staring at the door. "Wait 'till you get really close to her, and she'll spend the rest of your life punching you and acting like your mom," He laughed a little and walked to the hospital bed. "But I guess you'd escape that, considering that you're good looking and all,"

_Don't make things awkward, don't make things awkward. Think before talking, think before talking._

Sasuke simply stared at the door, as if wishing that the medic hadn't left them both alone. He didn't dislike the blonde moron, but he didn't like him either.

"Oh, and sorry 'bout before. I didn't mean to be an asshole,"

Sasuke's eyes slowly turned to Naruto, and he studied his expression. "…I don't mind," He said, and it was true. He didn't care about stupid jokes or brainless people—it never affected him.

Naruto smiled a little. "I'm glad," He then clapped his hands. "Alright! Let's get ya out of here. I bet you're sick of hospitals and stuff, right? Come on, Sakura must be comin' with your clothes," He said and gently put Sasuke's arm – he knew they weren't injured thanks to Sakura - around his shoulders, and when the raven was about to get on his feet, Naruto noticed they were bandaged. He then remembered the horrible scene of Ibiki hitting on them and looked at Sasuke, who simply blinked.

"Damn, I forgot. You can't walk, right? I bet your feet hurt a lot. Huh…" He looked around the room, until he spotted a pair of crutches. "Imma get 'em. Hang on," He said and walked over to the room's corner, where the crutches were. When he looked back at Sasuke, he was already on his feet and looking down at them.

The blonde's eyes went huge. "O-Oi! You can't just go walking around when your feet are still injured, ya know," He said and shook his head a little, then walked to the raven who was wearing a long hospital grey nightshirt that was way too large for him**(5). **One of his shoulders was showing due to the undone buttons, and he looked so... fragile and young and somehow _cute._

Naruto lifted an eyebrow. "And here I thought Sakura-chan had taken good care of you," He said with a small laugh and was about to take care of his undone buttons, but Sasuke reached them first and sent him a glare, though he was blushing a little. Perhaps he found the nightshirt more ridiculous than Naruto did. _Tche, what a girl._

"There," the blonde said and handed him his crutches.

"I don't need those," Sasuke calmly said and finished his buttons.

Naruto blinked. "Course you do. Go on, take 'em,"

"It doesn't hurt anymore," the raven said and glared once again, trying to ignore the burning pain he felt when walking a little.

Naruto noticed and glared back. "Sure you don't. You don't need to act like it doesn't hurt, ya know. You're not stronger or weaker cause of that," the blonde said – that coming from someone who always sneaks out of the hospital sounded terribly hypocrite, but the guy didn't know about that, so why worry? – and shoved the goddamn crutches to Sasuke's chest.

The raven growled, not only because of the blonde's stubbornness but because of the pain he felt on his stomach due to the crutches. "If I say that I don't need them, then I don't,"

"I don't care about what you say. You're not getting out of here unless you walk with these," Naruto challenged and crossed his arms over his chest.

Sasuke was about to argue, but he quickly calmed himself. What was he doing, getting so worked up because of this idiot? He got his blank expression on his face once again and calmly grabbed the crutches. He noticed Naruto blinking in surprise but ignored it; he just really wanted to get out of there, but by the looks of it, he wouldn't get any time in peace by living in the same apartment as this social, hyperactive policeman. The last thing Sasuke needed at the moment was socializing; Living with someone that wasn't his brother seemed wrong.

His heart seemed to break a little inside at the thought and his hand automatically supported his chest as if it would fall. Naruto noticed and was about to ask him what was wrong, but Sakura chose that moment to enter the room again.

Sasuke's hand fell and he kept his eyes locked on the ground.

"Here are your clothes, Sasuke. Go get changed so you and Naruto can leave, alright?" The pinkette said with a soft smile while ignoring Naruto's confused look. Sasuke took the clothes from her and simply walked away to the bathroom.

The medic turned to Naruto as soon as the bathroom's door closed. "What did you do?" She asked with a glare.

"Nothing, I swear!" He whispered. "I just told him he couldn't go walking around without his crutches, and he told me it didn't hurt. Then I said he was being stupid by acting tough," He stopped when Sakura face palmed. Hard. "Huh… what is it?"

"Naruto," She said in all seriousness and placed her hands on his shoulders. "That guy just lost the last family he had, found out they were a criminal, got tortured and lost his house and all his precious stuff," She paused and sighed.

"I know, Sakura-chan," the blonde said and looked down at his feet.

"You gotta be patient, Naruto. He needs someone who'll take care of him so he won't be broken for the rest of his life. He's… so difficult to read. He normally doesn't show any emotions, but he did when talking to you—"

"—How do you know that?" Naruto interrupted with an eyebrow lifted.

Sakura blushed a little. "I was obviously listening to you two on the other side of the door, you moron,"

"TRAITOR!" The blonde shouted and pointed an accusing finger at his friend, who grew a nerve on her forehead and punched his arm.

"Be quiet! He'll hear you," She whispered and looked over at the closed bathroom door, then let out a deep breath and got this serious look on her blonde friend again. "You're good at understanding people, Naruto. You pull them together. Just be yourself when taking care of Sasuke, and I'm sure he'll be alright with time, okay?—Just, be patient with him,"

Sakura's eyebrow twitched when she caught Naruto staring amusingly at the wall.

He laughed a little. "I heard you, don't worry. Just leave it to me, alright? I'll do my best, Sakura-chan," He said and placed his hands on the medic's shoulders as well, who smiled softly at him.

The bathroom's door finally opened and Sasuke walked out with his crutches and the hospital nightshirt he was wearing before on his shoulder.

Sakura walked to him and took it. "I'm guessing you don't want to keep this, ne?" She laughed a little, and then hugged him softly for a second. "I'm sure Naruto will take good care of you, but whenever you get sick of him, just remember the hospital is always at your service," She said and turned to playfully stick her tongue out at her blonde friend, who returned the childish gesture.

Finally, Naruto took Sasuke's bag and stuffed his other hand inside the pocked of his _so_ sexy white shorts. "Aw, come on, Sakura-chan! There's no way I'm treating Sasuke that bad for him to want to get back here, right?" He said and playfully poked the raven with his elbow.

"Hn," He said, which made Sakura burst into laughter.

"Thanks a lot, Sasuke!" Naruto playfully pouted and then turned to the door. "Well, we're leaving now. Catch ya later, Sakura-chan,"

"Later, Naruto,"

* * *

With a final turn of the key, the door to his apartment's room finally unlocked. He opened it for Sasuke and showed his best grin.

"Please make yourself at home," He joked and bowed a little, receiving a look from Sasuke in the process. The raven walked in and stayed still in the hallway until Naruto closed the door behind him.

"Home sweet home, huh? I know it's kinda small and nothing compared to your mansion, but it sure is comfortable. Come on, I'll give you a tour," He said and walked to the first room on the left.

Sasuke followed behind and looked at the walls of the small corridor; They had a lot of pictures of Naruto with other people and some random stuff, including a weird testament with the title in huge letters, _The Beer Bet. _He frowned a little but forgot about it when he stepped in what he assumed was the living room.

"This is the living room. I only use it to play videogames, watch movies and all that. I've got a huge collection, too. You're free to use it anytime—xbox, playstation, wii… Yeah. I'm kind of obsessed, eh," He rubbed the back of his head.

Sasuke said nothing, but the collection of CD's did catch his attention. He liked playing videogames—hell, he was excellent at it and sometimes even played with Itachi, but he rarely had the time to do so and playing alone wasn't that fun. The living room had a soft orange sofa with lots of pillows and blankets, a small table between it and the TV and two windows illuminating the division. The walls, once again, had pictures and some drawings, and a huge carpet made the room seem comfortable.

"Okay, so, now the rooms," Naruto cheerfully said, and walked to the first room at the end of the other short corridor and threw himself into the bed. "Aaaaand this is my room. I even cleaned it for you, ya know!—It's, uh, not like I never clean my room, though. No way. I always keep it clean,"

Somehow, Sasuke doubted that. He wasn't surprised by the looks and decoration of the room; it had a single bed in the middle with a big fox plushie_, _a small desk, a wardrobe and an orange sofa in the room's corner. However, what really caught the raven's attention, was the huge cupboard that had lots and lots of books, which didn't go unnoticed by Naruto.

He sat up on the bed. "So you like books, huh? I'm not surprised somehow. They belong to my mum, though," Naruto smiled sadly, but then forced out a laugh. "I don't really have the patience to read books, ya know. You can take a look at them whenever you want to, though,"

Sasuke's eyes seemed to sparkle a little as he stared at all of those books. _Not the patience, eh? I figured as much._

"You'll be sleeping in here 'till me and Kiba get to clean the guest room. I'll be in the sofa, so don't worry," He joked and got to his feet with a jump. "Oh, and that door you saw near my room is the bathroom; There's only one, so we gotta share,"

"Hn,"

"...Alright, moving on," Naruto said and walked to the next division, Sasuke following behind at a slower pace. "This is, obviously, the kitchen. S'kinda small, I know, but this is where we'll be having breakfast and all that—though I'll be taking your breakfast to bed since I gotta wake up really early and you need to rest. I don't work at Sundays and Mondays unless it's a special case and I have a different schedule almost everyday, so I'll mostly keep you company whenever I can—"

"—You don't need to," Sasuke interrupted with a monotone voice.

Naruto seemed a bit surprised and then frowned. "But, uh, it doesn't seem right to have you here alone all the time,"

Sasuke glared. "I don't need your _pity_,"

Naruto glared darkly at the raven when hearing such words and walked to him, noticing right away that he was only an inch taller. "I'm not doing this for pity. I'm doing this 'cause I want to,"

"Being given a mission by the elders doesn't count as doing something _because you want to,_" Sasuke answered in an even darker tone. He wasn't a fool; he knew how things worked in a prison and who gave orders to who. Naruto was simply following orders, and that was it. Besides not wanting to get close to this loud idiot, he absolutely didn't want or need his pity. If Sasuke accepted this offer, it wasn't because he was expecting _company_. He only wanted a place to stay during the stupid break they gave him.

"I've got news for you, smartass," Naruto growled. Being insulted like this, that he couldn't accept. He didn't simply 'follow orders'. He did what he thought that was the right thing to do. "This is an unofficial case, which means that I volunteered to offer you a place to stay. You should be grateful,"

"I never asked you for _anything_, so don't expect me to be grateful,"

"I'm the one taking care of you, like it or not,"

"I don't need anyone to take care of me,"

"_Liar_," Naruto said.

Sasuke stopped himself from answering when he noticed that he was getting worked up _again_, so he simply walked to the room where he would be staying and closed the door behind him.

He just wanted to be alone. Besides, talking to that idiot gave him a headache.

Naruto stared at the door for a while, then sighed.

This was going to be more difficult than he thought.

* * *

**(1):** If I'm not wrong, Jiraiya said exactly this in the manga. Ahh, how I love Minato. I just didn't want him to have the role of a bad father, or whatever—that's not what I mean to do.

**(2):** Asuma, Kurenai, Anko, Ibiki, Minato and Kushina are all around the same age and used to be really close friends as kids. 'Kashi, Obito, Yamato and Gai are all a bit younger, and then comes Naruto, Kiba, Shikamaru… etc.

**(3):** Yamato is really good friends with 'Kashi, Obito and Gai. Just thought I'd clear this one out :P

**(4):** This just made me imagine Team 7 reuniting. I'm havin' feels. ;A;

**(5):** *NOSEBLEED* For anyone who's read No. 6, remember how Nezumi was dressed when he first saw Shion? (if you haven't read it, I highly recommend) Well then, imagine Sasuke like that. I dunno 'bout you, but I personally find it cute, lol.

So, this was the fifth chapter of _Closer._ Nardo and Sasu are finally living together, ne? *sweatdrop* I tried putting more dialogue in this chapter I guess, so please let me know what you thought—oh and if you find any grammatical mistakes, please let me know via PM. I'll be really glad if you do so! Thanks for reading and please keep following this story!


	6. Perfect Babysitter?

**A/N**: Heyaa! So, here I am with a new chapter for the story _Closer_. *cough* finally *cough. This one's mostly 'bout Sasuke and Naruto, so I really enjoyed writing it. The one shot _Let it all out_ is on my profile, if you want to check it out! Yes, I am without inspiration to write a decent note. Eh. And I'm freaking tired, too. *zombie-like aura* I apologize, you beautiful people.

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I wouldn't have put a flashback within a flashback in that last chapter to torture the fans. ;A;

*drums and light* So, Ladies & Gentlemen, the fifth—uh, sixth? Yes, sixth—chapter of _Closer!_

* * *

_YO, NARUTO UZUMAKI-OH, PICK UP YOUR PHONE, DATTEBAYOH—_

A very grumpy Uzumaki got out from under the blankets and grabbed his phone, wanting to smash it more than anything—he really liked the rap Killer Bee did to him, but being woken up by it wasn't pleasant at all—and with big effort, he looked at the screen before accepting the call.

_An anonymous call… at six freaking am? Who the heck is this?_

"Hello?" Naruto said into the phone, sounding angrier than he intended to, but he couldn't help it; he was being awaken one hour before it was time for his alarm to go off.

"Naruto Uzumaki?" A dark, sinister voice seemed to whisper at his ear.

The blonde seemed to wake up at that moment. He frowned. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, that's me,"

"Is Sasuke Uchiha with you?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. Calling in anonymous and asking such questions that coincided with his unofficial mission? Sure, the blonde could be a bit irresponsible and act without thinking at times, but this was different; He was aware that Sasuke could never be out of danger, so he wouldn't risk making the smallest mistake.

"No, sorry. Guess you're mistaken,"

"No need to hide the truth from me. It has been long since I got into a cage, and besides, I have no desire of hurting you or my brother,"

"Who the heck are you? I'm gonna—wait, what? Your… brother?" His head was starting to hurt.

"This is Itachi Uchiha. Please, believe my previous words; I only want to talk,"

Naruto tch'ed. "How are you even using a phone? You shouldn't be—"

"I have my ways," The dark voice interrupted, and Naruto narrowed his eyes more. "I repeat, I only want to talk. About Sasuke,"

Naruto looked into the dark corridor, and when he heard no signs of the probably sleeping raven, let out a small breath. "Go on, and be careful 'bout Ibiki. He probably got his eyes on you,"

"Hn. As I said before, I have my ways," Naruto could hear the smirk on his voice. He didn't trust this person even a little bit; how could he be sure that this was Itachi Uchiha? That's right, he couldn't. He'd just listen to whatever they had to say and report it—no, find out about it on his own. It was his duty, after all. He was the one taking care of Sasuke Uchiha.

"How is Sasuke?"

"Good," Naruto glared harder.

"You don't believe this is Itachi Uchiha, do you?"

"Not a bit,"

"Hn. I find it rather funny how protective you are over my brother. Perhaps he has a good babysitter,"

Naruto blinked in surprise, then his expression turned into one of anger and embarrassment. _Is he making fun of me?_

"Babysitter my ass! I'm just—"

"Tall, raven hair and dark eyes, pale skin, doesn't talk much, loves books and music, is convinced that 'hn' is a word. You should have noticed this by now. Was… tortured to protect me and claimed himself guilty—"

"Alright, I got it, I got it! Geez," Naruto scratched his head; it _had_ to be Itachi. This information wasn't shared with anyone else—to the media or anyone outside the Shageki—and the descriptions fell perfectly with the Sasuke he badly met. There was just one more thing.

"What is the number of your cell?" Naruto asked and smirked a little. If he got this one right, then the blonde could be at least 90% certain that this was, indeed, Itachi Uchiha; There were millions of cells at Shageki, and it was impossible to guess one cell by luck—

"—Cell number 1039,"

Naruto's jaw fell to the ground.

He was talking to Itachi, and Itachi was talking to him. Using a phone. In a goddamn _cage_.

"Okay… okay. I believe you, alright?" Naruto began walking around the room. "Sasuke is… okay. Physically, I mean. He keeps saying nothing hurts and all, and, uh, we've argued 'cause of that. Eh. Also—"

"Sasuke argued? With someone?" Itachi interrupted, sounding impressed. Only a little.

"Well, yeah. What about it?"

"Nothing, nothing. Please continue,"

Naruto noticed the amusement in the other's voice and gave the phone a weird look. _Tche, Uchihas. _"He's sleeping right now, I hope. And, uh… emotionally, he's… weird. Really weird, I mean. I think he's terribly sad, but refuses to show it to anyone because he thinks it makes him… weak," Naruto almost whispered the last sentence.

Itachi was silent for a while.

"Hey?"

"Yes, I'm sorry. I was just thinking. Naruto Uzumaki, I have to leave now or we will both be in trouble. I'm sure you'll take good care of Sasuke, so I put my trust on you,"

Naruto nodded. "I promise,"

"If I'm not asking too much… Tap my brother's forehead and tell him I sent him that, alright? Thank you, Naruto. We will meet again,"

And with that, the line fell. Naruto stared at the phone for some good minutes.

_Tap my brother's forehead… What the heck? _Naruto thought with a deep frown, and then let his body fall to the sofa on a sitting position. _Itachi Uchiha, huh… Kinda hard to believe that he's a criminal._ He looked at the end of the corridor, and allowed a small smile to form on his features. _You really shared a strong bond with your brother, didn't you, Sasuke?_

With thoughts of the previous surprising events on his mind, Naruto laid on the sofa and closed his eyes. He still had a lot of time since today he only had to go to work at 9am, so sleeping didn't sound a bad idea at all—it just sounded completely impossible. Now he was wide awake and ready to face a new day. Jogging a bit at the park sounded good, but he didn't have that much time. He could play some Zelda—that's it, playing videogames was always the solution…

…until his stomach growled in disapproval. Naruto sweat-dropped; videogames _weren't_ the solution when you're hungry.

"Ramen is!" Naruto sang to himself and got on his feet with a jump. It's been a long time since he last had ramen for breakfast, so after opening the curtains of the two huge windows to allow some morning sun into the room, Naruto walked to the kitchen while scratching his butt covered in gray pajama pants and took a cup of instant ramen from the fridge.

"Maybe I should make Sasuke's breakfast now. Lemme see…" He looked inside and inspected what food was present in there. It was a generous variety, since the blonde had gone shopping before Sasuke moved in.

"Alright! Super special Naruto pancakes it is!" He said to himself and got all the ingredients ready on the kitchen counter, then began cooking. Naruto wasn't really well known for his talent for cooking, but if there was something the blonde knew how to make well were pancakes—super special Naruto pancakes.

So, sending the last of the pancakes into the air, catching it with the skillet pan and then placing it on top of the other five pancakes, Naruto filled a cup with natural orange juice and put it on the tray along with an apple and the plate with the pancakes. He stepped away from the counter to study the colourful tray filled with the pretty pancakes, red apple and orange juice. Something was missing…

"Jelly! You can't eat pancakes without jelly!" Naruto suddenly said and ran to the fridge, grabbing the first jelly pot his eyes spotted. Taking a spoon from the top drawer, he filled the pancakes with the red jelly – _now_ it looked perfect.

He was about to grab it and take it to the sleeping raven's room—_his room_, actually—but then felt like adding something else, seeing how badly they had gotten along the previous day, and Naruto refused to live in the same house as someone and not be able to socialize with them. So, placing the tray on the counter again, he grabbed a piece of paper and a pen.

"Uh… what should I write…" He said to himself, playing with the pen in his hands. His eyes lit up and he wrote a simple _'Good morning, Sasuke! Here's your breakfast. Hope you like it! :D'_

_Maybe putting a smiley is too gay?_ He thought about crossing it, but then it would look even more stupid. Suddenly, he remembered Sasuke had some pills to take that he brought from the hospital after Sakura telling him which ones and when he should take them. His tanned hand reached the top cupboard and he grabbed the right box, delicately took the pills and placed them on the tray.

When he was about to put the box back in the cupboard, he remembered something.

_"…We can't put Sasuke living all alone! The boy would mostly end up commenting suicide…"_

_Kurenai is right… _Naruto thought to himself and frowned a little at the pills box.

"I can't leave this here," He whispered and walked to the corridor where he had left his jacket he wore yesterday, then put the box inside the pocket.

_This should do it. Now for the breakfast!_

And with an optimistic thought in mind once again, the blonde walked to the kitchen, grabbed the tray with the delicious breakfast and walked to his room, where Sasuke was sleeping.

He placed his hand around the door knob and was just about to enter the room, but a silent scream stopped him from doing so. They were followed by a hurried breath and more cries.

"Sasuke!" Naruto's eyes went wild and he automatically pushed the door open, expecting to meet someone hurting the raven…

…But he was asleep. Naruto sighed in relief and walked next to the bed to place the tray on the bedside table, then studied Sasuke's face.

He was asleep, that was for sure, but he had the most terrified expression on his face with sweat dropping from his forehead and chin.

Another scared sound exited the pale boy's mouth and he violently turned his head to the left.

"Shit," Naruto felt his own heart skipping a beat, and he kneeled besides the bed. "Sasuke, wake up," He whispered, shaking the other's shoulders covered in the warm blanket.

The raven simply screamed again, and Naruto frowned in worry.

"Sasuke, wake up!" He yelled and shook his shoulders more. No response.

"Sasuke!" He shout out, only to look down at dark eyes suddenly wide opened.

"Finally! I was—" The blonde was about to show his feelings of worry, but his head got hit against the raven's when he suddenly sat up. _Hard._

"Woaah!" Naruto fell on his butt, his both hands on his forehead.

"W-What are you doing here?!" Sasuke shouted, and Naruto sat up on the ground, his hand still on his forehead and tears on the corner of his eyes. Sasuke had his cheeks a bit red and his hand on his forehead as well. He pulled the blanket more to himself and his breath was fast.

"I live here, ya know!" Naruto said with an annoyed pout and got to his feet. He seemed to remember something. "Oh, that's right!" He walked to Sasuke, then placed his palm on his forehead.

Sasuke blinked in confusion.

"Shit, Sasuke," He said, then took his hand back. "You've got a fever. And you were, like, screaming and moving around a lot. Are you alright?"

The raven's eyes went wild, and then he glared at the blonde. "I am fine. I told you before, I don't need your pity," He turned around on the bed and pulled the blankets up until it covered his head.

Naruto bit his lip as if stopping himself from exploding. Instead, he looked at Sasuke's back and the events of just a few seconds ago played in his head. He frowned in worry, and gently placed his hand on the other's shoulder. Sasuke flinched.

"I know what it's like to have a really bad nightmare, you know. Nothin' to be ashamed of," Naruto whispered, and it was true; after his mother died, he'd have a lot of nightmares of the terrible moment, and sometimes with the state his father came home in that same night. He was alone, and it reflected in his nightmares. He was scared and alone, and all that he wished for was to have someone by his side when he woke up from such a terrible nightmare. So, doing it to Sasuke seemed just right.

The raven poked his head out of the blankets and looked at Naruto for some seconds, but then turned around once again and curled a little.

"Look, uh," Naruto started, shaking the other's shoulder a little. "I bought you breakfast,"

Sasuke didn't move.

_Shit. Shit, shit, shit._ He thought. _Come on, Naruto, cheer him up. What would make Sasuke happy? A small theatre? Eh, I don't think so. I could sing to him!... Nope. Play piano?—I don't know how to play piano! Itachi?—No—Yes! Itachi!_

"I talked to your brother," Naruto said.

Sasuke slowly turned around to face the blonde, his eyes wide open and his lips parted from each other.

But then his face fell and a glare took place.

"Don't fuck with me," He threated.

Naruto blinked. "I'm serious! I really did talk to Itachi!"

"I said, don't fuck with me!" Sasuke shouted and sat up, anger showing in his dark eyes. "Just leave me—"

He stopped when he felt the blonde's fingers delicately tapping his forehead.

"I talked to your brother, and he sent you that," Naruto whispered, his fingers still on Sasuke's forehead. He kept his eyes on his pale face, studying his expression. The raven's eyebrows met and he bit his lip, then looked at the side as if wanting to hide his face.

Naruto took his fingers back and smiled a little. "He was worried about you,"

Sasuke began trembling and bought his knees to his chest.

Naruto's smile fell. "O-Oi! Don't cry, okay?!" The blonde said in panic, waving his hands in front of his chest. "That was supposed to cheer you up, not make you cry, bastard!"

Sasuke curled up even more.

"Come on, Sasuke," Naruto pleaded and placed his hand on the raven's shoulders once again. "He wouldn't want to see you crying like that,"

"What… did he say?" Sasuke whispered, his face buried in his arms.

"He only asked about you because we didn't have that much time,"

"And what did you say?"

"I said the truth," Naruto tilted his head a little to the side. "That you've been a bastard since you moved in and that you refuse to show that you're sad,"

Sasuke lifted his head a little to glare at the blonde, though the tears in the corner of his eyes kind of killed it's scary effect. _Was he really that stupid?_

"Oh, he also said something about me being your babysitter, or whatever—That reminds me! You've got a fever!" Naruto suddenly remembered and quickly got to his feet, then walked to his wardrobe. He opened it, looking for something warmer the raven could wear. "What were you thinking, anyway? Sleeping shirtless,"

"I don't have any clothes with me, in case you've forgotten," Sasuke pointed out, observing the other while he went around his wardrobe, then his nose caught something delicious and his dark eyes stopped at the colourful tray on the bedside table. He spotted a small note besides the plate with the pancakes and grabbed it.

"Your own fault for locking yourself in _my_ room," Naruto said with an eyebrow lifted and threw his best warm orange hoodie at Sasuke, the piece of cloth falling on his lap. "You could have just taken one from here, ya know," He then noticed the raven reading the piece of paper he had written for him, hoping to start a better relationship with Sasuke that morning. "I'm such a sweet guy, aren't I? That's your breakfast, by the way. And your pills, but only take them once you've finished the food,"

Sasuke placed the paper on the tray and looked down at the hoodie. It did look terribly comfortable—comfortable and… too orange. Feeling a cold shiver running through his body and his throat already sore, the raven dressed the hoodie. He looked down at it and easily got comfortable inside it.

"Do you only wear orange?"

"Of course not!" Naruto objected. "It's just my favourite colour,"

"Even someone blind could notice that," Sasuke observed, looking at the food on the tray. He still didn't move.

"That's so racist,"

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow. "How is that even racist?"

"Uh… I don't know?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head, then noticed the other's eyes stuck on the breakfast. "Eat it, pretty boy. It'll probably get ruined if you keep staring at it like that, ya know,"

Sasuke glared at the annoying pet name. "I'm not hungry,"

"Liar. You were so eating it with your own eyes. Go on, I had a lot of work doing that!"

"So I believe,"

"Sasuke!"

The raven sighed in annoyance. Yes, _sighed_. An Uchiha, sighing in annoyance because of a goddamn annoying and hyperactive blonde. How terribly was that?

Before he could say anything, the tray was already on his lap and a piece of pancake was being offered to him. He glared at Naruto, who had the most ridiculous expression on his face while actually daring _feeding_ Sasuke Uchiha.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke snapped, narrowing his eyes.

"Forcing you to eat?"

"I already told you that I'm not hungry,"

"Come on, Sasuke," Naruto sighed. "It's pancakes! Pancakes with tomato jelly! Besides, I doubt Itachi would want his younger brother to stop ea—"

"—Tomato… jelly?" Sasuke interrupted and blinked a couple times.

"That's right, tomato jelly. Sakura-chan told me you weren't very fond of sweets—which is really weird, by the way. We gotta do something about that—and, uh, tomato jelly isn't actually that sweet and I thought—"

He stopped talking when he felt the piece of pancake being pulled from the fork. Sasuke did it in a quick and almost embarrassed movement as if not wanting to get caught.

Naruto tiled his head a little to the side, then smirked. "So you like tomatoes, eh? Guess what, those pancakes are full of tomato jelly. It would be such a terrible waste to throw it all away…" He was about to grab the tray and take it, but Sasuke stopped him from doing so and roughly took the fork from the other's hand.

"…I'll eat it. Just because I've got to," He muttered and began cutting another piece of pancake, refusing to look at Naruto—he did glanced a little at the blonde, though, and almost felt like throwing up when noticing the lovey-dopey-happy-triumphant expression on his face. The pancakes were actually… great, but of course he wouldn't let the other know that.

"Good. And don't forget to take those pills, alright? You should sleep a little bit more once you're done. You need to rest and it's still early, after all,"

"Hn," Sasuke resisted the urge to ask Naruto where he was going when he noticed the blonde choosing some clothes from his wardrobe.

"I gotta get ready to work, but I left my phone number on the kitchen counter in case you need somethin',"

"I think I'll survive, thank you very much," Sasuke tch'ed.

"You're so sarcastic. It's hilarious, y'know?"

Sasuke glared.

"And a cold bastard, too. Anyway, time to get ready!" Naruto did a two fingers salut and was about to exit the room, but Sasuke suddenly remembered something.

"Wait," He said, feeling his heart aching a little.

"Uh? What is it?" Naruto lifted an eyebrow, looking at the raven.

"What's… going to happen to Itachi?" He almost whispered, turning his head to the side.

Naruto, however, just blinked in confusion. "What do you mean, what's going to happen to Itachi?"

Sasuke glared. "Don't act dumb. I know he'll be in big trouble when you report to the prison that he was able to connect you somehow,"

"And what the heck makes you think that I'll denounce him?"

Sasuke glared harder. "And why wouldn't you?" He provoked, not believing a word the other was saying; he was a police, after all, and if a criminal was able to connect with the exterior of the prison, it could be in great danger or he could even be planning to escape. Any police in their perfect mind would report it.

…But then again, was this blonde even a '_police in their perfect mind_'?

"I told you before, didn't I?" Naruto said, sounding offended and the most serious Sasuke's heard him. "I don't just simply follow the rules, or whatever you wanna call it, because if I did, I wouldn't be myself anymore; I do what I think is the right thing to do, and I think your brother calling me because he actually worries about you isn't wrong. Why would I go and prohibit him from wanting to make sure that you're alright?" Naruto explained as if it was the most simply thing in the world – and it really was, for him.

Sasuke was speechless.

There was no other way to put him; This guy he was living with at the moment, was definitely insane.

"Just… what type of police are you?" Sasuke thought out loud.

"The type of police that actually wants to make this world a better place," The blonde answered and offered the other his best smile, then finally walked out of the room, gently closing the door behind him so the raven would get some sleep once he was done with breakfast.

Sasuke stared at the door for some good moments, and then slowly placed his hand over his own chest.

_A better place, huh?... Such pretty little words that mean nothing more than mere fantasies._

"Hey, Shashuke, I'm out! Make shure ya take da pills and keep yohself warm, awright? Call meh if ya need anythin'!" Naruto suddenly opened the door and shouted around a mouthful of ramen, receiving a disgusted look from the other.

"See ya!" And with that, the front door closed.

Sasuke sighed and ate the last piece of his pancake, then placed one of the pills on his tongue and drank some of the orange juice. He took the other one and then placed the tray on the bedside table once again and buried himself in the warm blankets. The raven slowly reached his forehead with his two fingers to gently tap the meaningful spot and curled a little into a ball, remembering what had happened an hour ago.

He closed his eyes, and then opened it after some minutes.

_It's impossible. I'm not sleepy._

So, looking up at the huge cupboard with a beautiful collection of books, Sasuke let out a small breath.

_Might as well entertain myself and enjoy some peace while the moron is away._

* * *

So, here it is!

What did ya guys think? Good? Bad? Too rushed? I'm personally a bit unsure about Sasuke's personality, so I'm open to opinions and suggestions! Oh, and I'm having three freaking tests this week. That's right. Three. Freaking. Tests. Dx The end of this term is almost here, so I just gotta make sure I take good grades in these last tests! Pray for me, you people—your reviews seem to give me lick for tests. Ha. *Lame excuse*.

And this was the sixth chapter of _Closer_! Hope you enjoyed!


	7. Not a Burden!

**A/N: **Sooo, here's the seventh chapter!... I'm really sorry for not uploading stuff on here for over three weeks (or even a month? Two months?) but I needed a small break and I also went on vacation so yeah. Just to clear stuff out, _I'm never abandoning this story_ and I hope none of you lost your interest in this just yet. Your support means the world to me! I promise my updates will be now quicker since I'm all fired up again.

Ladies & Gentlemen, the seventh chapter of _Closer_! Enjoy!

* * *

As soon as Naruto opened the door to the living room where most of his comrades were, everyone started clapping and congratulating him when they noticed the blond had come in.

Naruto blinked at the whole scene and looked behind him as if confirming all those claps were directed to him. "Uh? What is it?—OH, is it my birthday? Did I forget my own birthday?" he began searching around his pockets for a calendar, but before he could even reach the first one, Lee grabbed his hand and kneed in front of him, happy tears ridiculously rolling down his cheeks.

"Naruto-kun! Please teach me how to love!"

Naruto's eyes went wide with shock when he noticed what was going on – Lee was asking him in marriage! And everyone else was encouraging him! Lee's passion for his rival had grown too much and living in the same house as Naruto was the ultimate challenge… NARUTO WOULD NEVER HAVE KIDS WITH NORMAL EYEBROWS! Not like they could have kids, but—

"—To fight against the devil to help the innocent Sasuke Uchiha and offer him a room in your apartment, that's what I call having a good heart, Naruto-kun!" Lee sniffed, more tears of joy falling from his eyes.

"Eh?" the blond blinked, not expecting _that _at all.

Shikamaru sighed and decided to step in, his hands in his pockets. A small smile took place. "It's a drag, but everyone ended up finding out about our infiltration, Naruto. Seems like they admire you now since you also went against Anko Mitarashi and—"

"—Yeah!" a loud exciting noise was heard and a strong, tanned arm thrown around Shikamaru's shoulders and the other around Naruto's. They both looked up at Kiba, who was grinning. "You shoudda seen Ibiki's face when Obito told everyone 'bout it and they just started congrulating you! I can bet puppies Ibiki was expecting them to react the opposite way, which left him furious when it didn't happen. Priceless, man!" the brunette burst into laughter, using his two friends as support. Shikamaru had a rather annoyed expression on his face while Naruto couldn't stop a triumphant grin from growing on his face.

"No way, dude! Awww, I can't believe I missed that!" he said, sounding frustrated.

"Don't worry, Naruto, I obviously recorded it," Neji said with a small smirk as he approached them.

Naruto's eyes got filled with sparkles. "Holy shit, Neji! You're the man! Come on, lemme see it!"

The long haired boy lifted an eyebrow. "I was obviously joking. Only an idiot would pull out a camera during one of Ibiki's anger attacks,"

"Oh yeah, that would totally work. Like, 'Wow, Ibiki, that's a nice fury attack you're having there! So, like, mind if I record it so me and the whole gang can have some fun later when watchin' it?" Ino said with a playful grin, followed by Sakura, and the room burst into laughter.

Lee actually thought about it for a moment, but then frowned and scratched his chin. "That wouldn't be youthful at all,"

"Aw, man," Temari said, whipping a tear from the corner of her eye. "So, blondie, mind if ya tell us what exactly happened? 'Cause me, Hinata, Tenten and Shino were away, and I'm totally up for a story,"

"Oh, that reminds me!" Sakura suddenly said, pointing a finger up into the air, remembering something important. "How's Sasuke handling himself, Naruto? Better, I hope?" the pinkette narrowed her eyes and the blond police could almost read the '_hope you weren't an asshole to him_' thought behind her green eyes, which was totally unfair! He was being such a nice guy to Sasuke!

"Ohhh, I wanna hear about that Uchiha boy as well! Sakura and Ino told me he was a pretty hot guy, ne?" Tenten said with a playful wink. Not even a second later and she could feel Neji's narrowed eyes on her. She laughed a little and grabbed her boyfriend's arm. "Just kidding, you jealous bastard!"

"I'm, uh, curious about it, too," Hinata admitted, receiving the same look from Kiba.

"Right, about that…" Naruto began and scratched the back of his head, thinking about it for a while as the events from the start of their_ friendship_ to that morning played in his head, and if there was one thing he noticed about Sasuke, was how reserved he was at the moment. If the raven wouldn't share any information with the guy he currently lived with even though he just moved in a day ago, then it didn't seem right to share the little he knew with these people that were strangers to Sasuke, even if they were Naruto's best friends. "He doesn't trust me just yet, so I don't think there's much I should tell you. But physically, he's totally alright!" the blond said with a grin, the others eyeing him suspiciously. He clapped his hands. "BUT! I'm soooo telling you what me and those two," he stopped to point at Kiba and at Shikamaru after getting on a table, on his feet. "did at the elders meeting,"

Kiba made a scared sound to add some suspense and the whole gang laughed once again. As Naruto began telling their so-top-secret-story-everyone-knew-about with 'theatrical effects', more emphases than needed, and Kiba sometimes interrupting to add some _useful information_, they were just having a good time as friends since today was a rather calm day with no freaks out there trying to kill people or steal a bank. Today was just one of those lazy mornings that felt really good from time to time, and the Shageki Prison members really needed something like that after all the drama they went through in that last month.

* * *

After parking his car, Naruto rested his forehead on the steering wheel and let out a deep sigh. He felt so tired that he almost decided to take a nap right there, but leaving Sasuke alone at the apartment the whole night didn't seem right and it also wasn't safe at all considering he was a police and could very well have people following him because, well, he had Itachi Uchiha's younger brother with him, now didn't he? He could even have the Akatsuki members that escaped after him**(1)**. That was what Naruto's dad talked to him about, anyway, but if he was honest, the blond didn't think it was possible. It seemed so… unreal. That didn't mean he wouldn't be careful, though.

"Eh, dad's just worried about me. Can't blame him," he muttered and groaned when he lifting his head from the steering wheel and grabbed his keys, cellphone and the Chinese take-out he got for his and Sasuke's dinner, then stepped out of the car.

*º*º*º*º*

He finally opened the goddamn door on his third try, stepped inside and then threw the keys on the small table on the hallway. Naruto looked around and then walked to the living room, where a raven boy was sitting on the corner of the sofa with a blanket around him and had his left foot resting on the small table.

He noticed Naruto some seconds later and automatically took his foot off of the table.

The blond laughed a little. "S'not a problem, dude. Keep it there," he said with a small smile and placed the bags with the Chinese food on that same table, noticing some other books were there as well. He pointed at them. "Seems like you were pretty entertained the whole day, eh? And here I was worried that you'd be bored,"

"Hn,"

"Right, uh," Naruto scratched the back of his head, feeling a little awkward. Not like he was expecting an 'Oh, welcome home, Naruto! How was work?' from Sasuke, but it felt weird to be the only making dialogue _again_. "I got Chinese take-out. I know it's a little late for diner since it's, like," He paused to take a look at his watch. "Half past nine? But yeah, better late than ever, or whatever they say," he lamely chuckled at his own joke.

"I already ate," said Sasuke, his eyes never leaving the book.

"Oh," Naruto couldn't help but feel guilty for being so late from work, especially after promising Sasuke he'd have dinner with him everyday.

"I'm really sorry for being so late. I didn't mean to leave you on your own. Uh, we had a pretty calm morning, but then Ibiki made us work out a lot and—"

"—It's alright. I don't really care," Sasuke quickly interrupted, sounding more annoyed than what he intended to. "I'm twenty-one years old and it's not like I'm not used to having dinner on my own,"

The blond studied the other for some seconds, frowning. "Yeah, but… That doesn't mean you have to like having dinner on your own, right? I mean, you don't have to like something just because you're used to it,"

Sasuke stared at him for some seconds, then went back to his book. "You're insane,"

"Maybe," the blond answered, giving the other his best grin. He then grabbed his Chinese take-out bag and the chopsticks that came with it. "M'just gonna dig in. You can still have yours of course. And—Oh! I almost forgot. I got you a tomato salad," Naruto said with a sheepish grin and searched around the other bag he got and took out a transparent recipient. He placed it next to Sasuke's take-out. "There,"

Naruto sat back and began eating. "What did you have for dinner, anyway?"

"A toast,"

"What?"

Sasuke sighed. "A. Toast."

"You call _that_ having dinner? You gotta eat, Sasuke! And take your pills, too!"

"I can't. They disappeared, somehow," the raven narrowed his eyes.

Naruto stared at him for some seconds until he remembered that morning's events. "Oh, uh…" he began, not knowing what to say or do and scratched the back of his head. "So you noticed,"

"_Of course_ I noticed. I'm not some kid. I won't take my life over what happened. As I said before, I'm used to stuff like this," Sasuke closed the book, deciding that he just couldn't focus on the story with Naruto in the room. "So maybe I don't like stuff I'm used to, but what other options do I have? I just got to take it and not complain—"

"—That's wrong!" the blond interrupted, feeling really angry. "_Take it and not complain_? You say you're not a kid and then burst out something like that?"

"So it would be better if I did kill myself?" he challenged, a little louder than he had intended to.

"That's not what I'm saying, you idiot. What I'm saying is that you don't have to take whatever you don't like and act like you like it just because you're _used to it_. See, here I am trying to give you a goddamn home and trying to make you feel like you're not alone anymore and you just… fucking ignore me or whatever and—"

"—You _did _come late for dinner _and_ left me alone all day though," Sasuke muttered, breaking the other's logic. As much as he hated to make others feel bad for him or guilty, it didn't make sense for Naruto to be lecturing him after breaking his promise. So what if the raven was actually looking forward to having a goddamn simple dinner simply because it wouldn't be spent alone? Yes, he was, but Sasuke had learned a long time ago that he shouldn't expect much from people or he would always end up feeling disappointed.

Naruto's thought was automatically lost and his face went red with embarrassment and shame. He looked down at his feet. "I'm really sorry,"

Sasuke cleared his throat and looked back at the book so he wouldn't have to take in the other's pitiful expression. And what, he was actually feeling guilty. How ridiculous was that?

"Stop apologizing. It's not a big deal,"

"I'm really, really sorry,"

"Look—"

"—No, I'm serious. We had a calm morning at the prison but then there were lots of calls and Ibiki's so pissed at me he decided to change our schedule so we would have to work out the rest of the afternoon, so I only got out at half past eight—"

"—It really is okay—"

"—Then I noticed I wouldn't have time to make us dinner and drove to my favourite take-out restaurant where there's never any other people, but for some reason it was just so full today because it's Friday and there was a fight between two guys at the restaurant—"

"—Seriously, stop—"

"—I was so tired I almost fell asleep when I parked and… I'm babbling, aren't I?

"Yes, you are," Sasuke said with a sigh.

"I'm sorry," Naruto mumbled and decided it would be safer if he just stopped talking before he did anything even more embarrassing. He grabbed his take-out once again and sat back on the sofa, eating as he stared down at his food with a frown.

Sasuke opened his mouth to talk, but then closed it. He did it again and placed the book on the table, not knowing what to say. He felt like an idiot. Sasuke Uchiha _wasn't_ good at socializing. He sucked at it, actually, so what was he supposed to do in a situation like this? He thought back at Naruto's words, and it did seem like he was trying. As much as the raven hated causing trouble to others, he felt even worse when others tried to please him and he seemed ungrateful.

So, swallowing his pride, Sasuke grabbed his take-out and opened the bag. He also grabbed the chop-sticks and noticed right away how hungry he actually was.

"You don't have to explain me anything. It's not like I'm your girlfriend or something,"

Naruto stared at him.

"…I was joking,"

The blond smiled a little. "I know, I know. You surprised me is all. Wasn't expecting a joke from you, y'know,"

"I guess so," Sasuke muttered.

They ate in silence for a few minutes, and for a change, it was the raven who broke the silence.

"What's this?" he asked, a piece of food between his chopsticks.

"Oh, that's sweet pork. What, you've never tried it before?"

"Not really," The raven confessed, curiously eyeing the piece of food."Is it sweet?"

"Yup,"

"Then I probably won't like it,"

"No no no, it's good, for real! You can't just say no to sweet pork before even trying it, man,"

Sasuke lifted a perfect eyebrow. "I can't?"

"Nope! Go on, try it," Naruto said with a grin. "I did say we had to do something about the fact that you don't like sweets, right?"

"I never agreed with that," the raven quickly interjected.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, too late for that. Go on, try it,"

Sasuke sighed, deciding that it was totally useless to try to be heard in a situation like this. He didn't want to end up being fed by the blond _again_, after all. So, lifting the chopsticks to his mouth, Sasuke first licked off a little of the sauce.

"The sauce is pretty sweet, but the porky's salty, so it's a good combination. The objective is to eat it combined, y'know," Naruto mocked him, a small smile on his face.

Sasuke glared at the other man and just ate it.

"So?"

He swallowed it. It… wasn't that bad. Pretty good, if he was honest, and the sweet taste of the sauce disappeared when mixed with the pork**(2)**. "It's not that bad,"

"See, I told you. The sauce's the best part, though. Hey, your name sounds like sauce! Something like, Sauce-kay? See, you were destined to like sweets,"

Sasuke made a face. "You do realize that sauces aren't normally sweet, right?"

"Aw, are you saying you're not sweet?"

Sasuke resisted the urge to facapalm. "You're an idiot,"

Naruto simply grinned and finished his food. "Maybe you're a sweet kind of sauce, who knows. Or maybe you're actually the salty pork and _I'm_ the sweet sauce,"

The raven tilted his head to the side. "What, because you're trying to make me like sweets?"

"That would make sense. And it also means I'm trying to make you like me, since I'm the sweet. Shit, man. I'm _so_ writing a book,"

"Please don't tell anyone I gave you this idea in that book of yours,"

"I would never do that! I don't wanna share my future richness with you, after all,"

"Sure you don't," Sasuke sarcastically said and finished his food as well. He placed the bag on the table.

"Aw, look at us, getting so nicely along. And I think you said more than ten words today!" Naruto said with a grin. He was having fun.

The raven glared and grabbed his book once again. "Your annoying self is less disturbing than your babbling one," he smirked when Naruto's face got all red again.

"Shut up, idiot! I was in panic,"

"So I noticed," Sasuke began reading again.

Naruto smiled and collected the plastic bags to throw them in the trash. "Uh, what about your tomato salad? Want me to put it in the fridge?"

"I'll do that," Sasuke said and began getting on his feet, but the other waved his hand.

"Nah, I'll do it. I'm also going for a shower, unless you wanna go first?"

"It's alright," Sasuke shrugged.

"Actually, it'd be a good idea if you went in first 'cause I have to disinfect your injuries and replace the bandages," Naruto pointed out, sucking on his bottom lip. "Shit, you also haven't taken you pills. Hang on—"

"—I'll do that on my own," the raven interrupted. "I think I'm capable of changing my own bandages, thank you,"

"No way. Sakura made sure she gave me some classes or whatever she called it and she made sure I knew it was me who had to do it,"

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow. "Change of plans, then,"

"Nope," Naruto easily said and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

The other man growled and closed his book _again_. "Why are you so annoyingly stubborn?" he said and placed the book on the table, _again_. It was a fact: reading when Naruto wasn't at least five meters away was impossible.

"Because." Naruto answered the other's rhetorical question with a grin

"Whatever. Just make it quick," Sasuke said and got on his feet.

*º*º*º*º*

Once in the bathroom, Naruto gathered everything he would need while Sasuke waited, sat on the toilet. He had already taken his shower and his pills and was only wearing his underwear since clothes were an obstacle when it came to cleaning and disinfecting Sasuke's injuries. The Uchiha watched as Naruto moved around, always talking about something until he eventually stopped in front of him, ready to treat him.

Naruto looked at the other boy from his feet to his face. "Shit. You've got way more than I imagined. Okay, uh…" he kneeled in front of the raven and grabbed a scissor, then gently cut off the bandages around his torso and back. He unwrapped them, the white pieces of soft paper falling on the floor until he was able to see Sasuke's injuries.

Naruto clenched his jaw and grabbed the bottle of peroxide. "This is for cleaning. It might burn a little," he muttered and got a bit of the liquid on cotton, then began to gently clean his injuries. He felt Sasuke's body harden under his touch. "Does it hurt?"

"No, it's alright," the raven automatically said.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I'll just pretend I believe you," he felt Sasuke's eyes staring down at his own injuries.

"Do you work out?" the blond sheepishly asked – he was curious and it was impossible not to notice the raven's really good shape and defined muscles, especially on his abdominal.

"I used to run every morning, yes," Sasuke admitted, frowning at the other's behavior. He had to admit that his shape and muscles were something he took great pride in, though he always made sure not to overdo it. Sasuke wasn't blind, and he had already noticed Naruto's good shape, as well, but that was to expect since he was a policeman.

"I thought so," Naruto said to himself.

Some other two minutes passed and he threw the cotton on the trash. "Now for the Betadine," He said to himself and repeated what he did with the peroxide, though he now had to spread the ointment right in the injuries so they'd scar faster. Naruto did it as gently as he could manage, Sasuke never complaining or shivering at the sometimes painful touch.

"You're being such a good boy. I might even give you a lollipop at the end!" he said, trying to mock the typical nurse's voices that gave sweets to kids whenever they behaved well.

Sasuke snorted. "Ah, the bliss,"

Naruto laughed and started wrapping the bandages around the other's torso, making a small lace at the end. "Is it too tight?"

"It's okay. Why's the lace, though?" he asked, an eyebrow lifted.

"Because it looks cute?"

Sasuke glared and Naruto laughed again. "Now for the thighs,"

The blond took care of every one of Sasuke's injuries – some awkward moments happening during the let-me-threat-the-injuries-on-your-thighs-that-are -really-close-to-your-big-crotch-and-you're-on-you r-underwear moment – until he eventually reached his knees and the raven stopped him from getting any closer to taking the bandages from it. Naruto looked up at him with confused cerulean eyes.

"What's up?"

"Uh, leave the knees to me," Sasuke said, sounding a little nervous.

Naruto frowned, feeling suspicious. "I thought we were over this. Come on, Sasuke, I told you I'd do it,"

"No. You're tired and you still haven't had your shower, so I'll do it myself,"

"That's a lame excuse, y'know,"

Sasuke growled. "Fine. Go ahead, but I warned you,"

Naruto gave him a challenging look, and then proceeded to cut the bandages. He unwrapped them, slowly and gently, and then automatically took his hands back and his eyes went big.

Sasuke looked away and clenched his fists. He wasn't stupid, he had noticed the looks Naruto gave to all of his injuries and even felt the blond shiver from time to time, so why would he still want to do it? It didn't make the slightest sense.

Naruto took a deep breath and then let it out. He grabbed the cotton and began cleaning Sasuke's knees, not being able to stop his head from hurting or his own knees from trembling. He threw the cotton on the trash and grabbed a new one to disinfect it with the Betadine, the raven still looking away.

"Fucking Ibiki," the blond said under his breath, loud enough for the other to hear it. "I'm going to fucking kill him—"

"—Why do you insist on treating me? Go calm yourself down and I'll do the rest," Sasuke said, his hands beginning to tremble as the memories of being tortured played in his head.

Naruto ignored him and began wrapping the bandage around his left knee, holding his breath. He gave a lace at the end and did the same to his right knee.

"See?" the blond said, letting out a deep sigh as he sat on the floor. His hands went through his hair and he forced a grin. "I told you I'd do it, right?"

Sasuke still refused to look at the other, his dark hair hiding his eyes.

"Sasuke?" Naruto called, frowning in worry. "Hey, what's wrong? I'm sorry if I hurt you that bad back there, I tried to be gentle but—"

"—Shut up," the raven said, his voice shaky and weak.

The blond reached him, his heart bumping against his chest way too fast. He noticed tears rolling down his cheeks and Naruto automatically felt like crying, too. "Shit," He said, "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your knees," Naruto whispered.

"It's not that," the raven answered after a while, whipping the tears from his eyes.

"What is it, then? You can talk to me, Sasuke. I'll listen,"

"It's just…" he began, finally turning his head to Naruto, looking down. "I feel like such a burden," Sasuke admitted, slightly curling a little, but it was difficult since the blond was between his legs, facing him.

And that's when it all made sense to Naruto. Not wanting to be treated, not wanting to be given a simple breakfast or accept what other people did to him… that wasn't because he didn't want someone to take care of him and be there for him, but because he was used to do everything on his own. _Because he didn't want to feel like such a burden to Naruto_. He didn't want to live with someone else in this situation. He felt like a pet and a burden Naruto only had to feed from time to time and check if he was alright.

"You're not a burden to me, Sasuke, if that's what you're thinking. I've told you before that I do the stuff I want and not for pity or whatever you want to call it. If I want to have dinner with you, then it's because _I want to_. If I want to treat your wounds, then it's because _I'm worried about you_. Sure, I've only just met you, but I already understood a lot of things about you that I can relate myself to," he paused to place his hair behind his ear. "Don't think too much and accept what I'm giving you if you want it, alright?"

It took a while, but Sasuke eventually nodded and looked at Naruto.

"Huggie?" the blond lamely offered and opened his arms.

Sasuke gave him a look.

Naruto opened his arms even more.

The raven ended up sighing and let himself fall to the other's arms, returning the hug.

It felt… really comfortable. He could almost fall asleep like that.

The hug lasted for some more seconds and Sasuke made a face. "You stink, by the way,"

"Shut up!" Naruto said into his shoulder and laughed, making Sasuke feel his body trembling against his. "I've wanted to take a shower for, like, five hours? Your fault for keeping me busy,"

Sasuke began pulling away, but Naruto pulled him back and let out another laugh. "I was just kidding, smartass,"

The raven smiled a little. "Excuse me for not getting your great sense of humour,"

"Aw, you're forgiven,"

*º*º*º*º*

After taking his shower and getting dressed, Naruto walked to the living room, where Sasuke was sitting, wearing one of the blond's pajamas. He was peacefully reading the same book as before until a certain someone jumped on the sofa and sat next to him.

Sasuke glared when Naruto peeked, distracting him.

"Whatcha readin'?"

"_Trying to read_, you mean," Sasuke turned the page. "Lord of The Rings,"

"Ohhh, sweet! I've seen the movies, they're great. Been planning to read the books for years," Naruto said and got comfortable against the other's arm, receiving a glare from the raven, which he happily ignored. He read the whole page with Sasuke, actually getting interested in the book.

"Shit, man, I remember this part. Woah," He commented, nodding when Sasuke asked for permission to turn the page. "Aragorn's the best. And the two idiots, too,"

"You mean Pippin and Merry? Hn. Pippin's a little like you,"

"Hey!"

They kept on reading together, not even noticing the hours going and going until two am.

* * *

**(1)**: This is pretty obvious, but I'm still going to point it out: No one knows that Madara is an Uchiha.

**(2)**: Okay, I was pretty fucking hungry while writing this and I've wanted Chinese food for _days_!

Sooo, here it is. I feel like the character development is being too rushed, but… I'm not sure. This was kinda difficult, sorry!

Please let me know what you thought and thaaaanks for reading!


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